The Promise II
by CGWolf '95
Summary: Humphrey and Lilly have found love in each other. Now, it's time to make sure they keep it. But when an unexpected wolf tries to come between these two, it's time to test the strength of their love for each other. Will the love these two share be strong enough to keep them together?
1. Prologue

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Prologue | Lilly_

Humphrey and I had been away from Jasper for about two weeks. Kovu and Hailey were nice enough to share their den with us. We were glad that it was large enough for two extra wolves. It wasn't much of a problem, with me and Humphrey cuddled together each night. I enjoyed not only the thought of cuddling with him, but I also enjoyed the body heat that we shared with each other.

"Hurry up, Lilly," Humphrey yelled to me. "We're going to miss it!"

We had been at the river, getting a drink when we had heard the howl. The wedding was starting soon, and we were pretty far away. We absolutely had to make it in time for Zak and Allie's wedding. It was starting any second, and I won't know if they were going to wait on us or not. I hoped so, because we were almost there. The two of us found ourselves standing at the top of the large hill. This hill led down to the main area of Glacier pack territory. I looked down the hill. Pushing the fur away from my left eye and putting it on top of my head, I sighed. Humphrey groaned and said, "I thought we were closer than this..."

I looked at him, hoping he had an idea. He was definitely thinking of one. That's when I saw it. A large piece of tree bark hanging off the tree to Humphrey's side. "I've got an idea," I said. He backed up as I passed him. I grabbed the log-sled and put it down in front of us.

Humphrey looked at me, to the log, and back at me before asking, "You're seriously going to try this again after last time?"

"This hill is different," I contradicted. "There's no trench at the bottom of this one."

"Yea but—"

I interrupted him with a lick on his cheek. "You talk too much," I chuckled. "Just get in. We're already losing time, as it is."

I knew I had him figured out. He'd do pretty much anything I said after I kissed him or licked his cheek. I could tell he liked it. I watched Humphrey climb into the log and grab the sides of the log. I quickly climbed in front, taking hold of the sides once I realized we were already moving forward. I scooted back to lean against Humphrey before grabbing on to the sides as tight as I could. Then Humphrey kicked us forward. I may have been scared the first time, but this time... This time was no different. We gathered way too much speed, way too fast.

The powerful breeze of the wind pushing our fur back may have been enjoyed by Humphrey, but all it did to me was heighten the fear, making it feel like we were moving even faster than what we really were. A tree was coming straight for us. Responding to my natural instinct, I leaned right. I could feel that Humphrey had leaned that direction as well. We continued down the hill, and I was beginning to wonder if there was even an end to this slope. Even though I had been scared, I still wished that this would never end.

That's when I realized that I had stopped screaming. I wasn't even feeling scared anymore. I was enjoying this. Maybe it was from the fact that I've done this before, and I knew what it felt like. I guess I was getting used to the feel of it all. I tried not to remember what it felt like dangling from Humphrey's paw in that trench. I focused my mind on Zak and Allie. On Hailey. Kovu. Linda. Aleu. Chloe. Most importantly, Humphrey. My heart somehow started beating faster than it already was. It felt like my chest was about to explode.

I leaned back against Humphrey's body for more comfort. I was sitting far enough in front of him that, when I leaned back, my head was on his chest. I looked up at him. He was looking me in the eyes. I smiled, looking at his blue eyes, and calmly said, "Don't you dare think about taking us up a jump." The way I said it reminded me of how calm my mother sounded whenever she made a threat.

All he could do was laugh. I knew why. It was the jump that made my first log-sled ride a terrible experience. I thought I had been scared, but at least my eyes had been open before the jump. I looked back ahead of us, and leaned left. Our sled moved left, barely dodging a boulder. I looked back, surprised we actually missed it. "Too close," I said. "_Way_ too close."

I looked back in front of us to see the bottom of the hill finally approaching. I looked farther ahead of us to see the crowd of wolves coming together. The wedding was going to start any second, and we were almost there. We were going to make it!

Then we crashed into a boulder that neither me or Humphrey had seen. The two of us went tumbling down the rest of the hill, our two bodies a mix of legs and grey and white fur. It reminded me of when were still puppies, playing tag. Except, it was different now. We were in love, not just friends. The two of us couldn't help but laugh as gravity brought us to the flat ground at the bottom of the hill. We ended up face-to-face at the bottom, our legs spread in every direction.

The two of us lay there for a moment, locked in each other's mesmerizing gaze. He stretched his neck out and licked me on the cheek. Even though we had been together for the past two weeks, I still couldn't get used to him doing that. I tried forcing myself not to blush underneath my fur, but I knew it was uncontrollable. Even though I couldn't see the red underneath my fur, I knew it was there because I felt the blood rush to my cheeks.

I sat up when my ears picked up the sound of the crowd. Well, the _end _of the sound of the crowd. I noticed when the crowd had fallen silent. I knew that the ceremony was about to begin. After helping Humphrey get back up, we ran towards the crowd. We were forced to sit in the back. That's what we get for being late, I guess. Oh well, at least we could still see Zak and Allie up front. I was glad to see that we hadn't missed anything.

They had just started circling around each other, looking into each other's eyes. I could actually see the passion their eyes. After making a complete circle, the two leaned and and started to take in the other's scent to be familiar with it. They didn't spend too long on that step, and quickly moved on to the next part of the ceremony. They leaned in toward each other, and nibbled the other on the right ear. Allie giggled when Zak nibbled on her ear. I could tell she did because it wasn't too difficult to hear.

Then came the final part of the wedding.

The nose-rub. It was the last thing they had to do, to symbolize that they were mates, and neither of them looked to be having any regrets. Neither were slowing down, or looked ready to back away. They just continued closing in, inch by inch, second by second. Until it finally happened. Their noses finally made contact. I hadn't heard a cheer this loud from a crowd of wolves ever since the East and West packs of Jasper were joined together by marriage. Of course, the same thing was happening here, except it was the North and South packs of Glacier.

I didn't see what happened after the nose-rub. There were too many wolves jumping with joy that their packs were finally united. Which made me wonder. Just what was the reason for them being united? Was it a lack of caribou on one side like Jasper's two packs, or was it just to bring peace? I guess it doesn't matter. Whatever the reason was, it was fixed now. It's a good thing that Allie stepped up to marry Zak. Not only because it kept him from killing Chloe, but because they actually did love each other. It wasn't an arranged marriage.

"Follow me!" Humphrey yelled over the cheering crowd. I nodded, following after him. I knew where we were going. We were looking for Chloe, or Hailey and her family, or all of them. It was too bad we couldn't sit with them during the ceremony. It would have been nice to see Hailey's reaction to her son getting married. Oh well. I'm just happy that I was able to stay with Humphrey and sit by his side during the event.

I saw Hailey looking around, as if she was looking for us. I nudged Humphrey's side and pointed at her. The two of us quickly jogged over to her, finding her with Kovu, Aleu, and Linda. I wondered where Chloe was at. The volume of the crowd's cheering died down a bit, making it easier to hear our conversation. Humphrey said, "Second loudest wedding I've ever been to."

Kovu said, "When two packs are uniting, who wouldn't be cheering? More caribou to hunt and more territory to explore."

The six of us turned to look at Zak and Allie. They were walking toward us. Hailey smiled and whispered, to me "Watch this." She walked up to Zak and hugged him, yelling, "My little boy is so grown up! I can't believe you're already married! I feel so old now! _Don't_ respond to that, Aleu."

I looked to Aleu to see her mouth closing. How did Hailey know that her daughter was about to say something? It's strange how mothers and daughters have that sort of connection. I wonder if that sort of thing ever happened between me and my own mother. I'll have to test that out when we get back to Jasper.

I heard Humphrey's snickering before I heard my own. Linda, Aleu, and Kovu joined us soon afterward. I looked to Allie, smiling at her new mother-in-law. Zak rolled his eyes and groaned, "Mom... Did you seriously have say that?"

The rest of us went over to them, and Kovu said, "We never got the chance to embarrass you, so we're making up for all the time you've been in the North."

"Hey!" I thought I must have been the only one to hear it, but I realized I was wrong when the others turned towards the source of the voice. A grey-and-white female was coming toward us. At first glance, I thought it was Chloe, but then again, Chloe didn't have green-colored eyes. She walked toward me and Humphrey. "I've never seen you two around here before." I was hoping we weren't in trouble for trespassing on Glacier Park territory.

"Really? We've been here the past two weeks," Humphrey said.

"Two weeks? Really? Wow, you'd think I would have noticed you. Huh, so what are your names?" She was smiling. I guess we weren't in trouble for anything. This girl was actually really nice.

"I'm Humphrey. This is my girlfriend, Lilly."

"Humphrey... That name sounds familiar for some reason. Oh well. Anyways, nice to meet you two. I'm Jade."

"Oh, hey Jade." Kovu came over to us. "I thought you were supposed to be at the hunting grounds. Isn't it starting soon?"

"Oh my gosh! Thanks for reminding me!" She turned around and started running. As she ran off, she yelled back, "I'll see you guys later!"

It amazed me how much Jade looked like Chloe. I would've thought she was another sister of Humphrey's that was separated from him. But he had told me that he only had _one_ sister, Chloe. I shivered, getting a cold feeling up my spine. I didn't know if it was a sign that something was wrong, or if it was just the cold breeze that flew by. With Winter on the way, the cold breezes were coming more often than usual.


	2. Chapter One

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter One | Lilly_

Something woke me up, but I had no idea what it was. I could feel that Humphrey was laying even closer to me than when we had fallen asleep. I didn't think something like that was possible, considering our bodies were against each other, but I just _felt_ closer to him. My tail was resting on my nose to keep my face warm. I pulled my tail off my nose and slowly sat up, making sure not to disturb Humphrey's sleep. I stretched my legs and yawned before finally realizing my fur was lying in front of my left eye, like how I used to wear it.

It took about a month after I first started wearing it up for me to realize that it would fall back down in my sleep. Flicking my head up, my fur went back to rest on the top of my head. I smiled at myself for successfully pulling off the movement. A cool breeze flew by me, making me involuntarily shiver. Looking around the den, I saw that Kovu and Hailey were still asleep as well. Linda was asleep on the other side of Kovu, and Aleu was next to Hailey. I smiled at the family, all sleeping together. Except for Zak. He and Allie didn't join the rest of us for sleep. They went back to Allie's family's den to spend time together before coming back for dinner.

My stomach growled at the thought of food, and I winced, hoping it wouldn't wake Humphrey. After I was sure Humphrey hadn't woken, I let out a sigh of relief. I hadn't heard it before, but I could hear it now; growling from outside. Worried as to what was happening, I quickly jogged over, careful not to make too much noise on the floor of the den. I stopped just outside, looking around for the source of the growling.

It was coming from two wolves glaring and snarling at each other. _Where're the Omegas? _I wasn't sure if I should wait for the pack's Omegas to come and handle it, wake up Humphrey and have him deal with it, or bring myself onto the scene. I was running toward them before I even realized what I was doing. Guess I was going to take care of it myself. My Omega blood kicked in as I ran toward the two wolves. If this got too out of paw though, I'd go back and get Humphrey. If something happened and I couldn't get back, I'd just yell for him. They weren't far enough away for Humphrey to not hear me.

I slowed down as I approached them. When I spoke, I used the calmest-sounding voice I could manage. "What's going on here?"

Now that I was standing with them, I noticed they were both male. The red wolf gave me a sideways glance and told me, "Bug off. This is between me and this bozo."

"She's just doing her job," the white wolf on my right said. He turned to me and explained, "I was helping with today's hunt, and then this_ bozo_ attacked me, saying we ruined the Northern pack's hunt."

"Because you did!" Red interjected.

"If we were in the North," White replied, "then you would be right! But this is Southern territory; y_ou_ ruined _our _hunt!"

"You know there's no caribou in the North!"

Okay, so they were having the same troubles that the West and East had in Jasper. Now that I understood what was going on, I decided to step in and try to resolve the problem. "Okay, you two... I know this might be tough for you two, trying to get along, but it will work out later."

"Oh? And how the hell would _you _know?" Red asked me.

"First of all, please don't use that language with me. Second, the Eastern and Western packs in Jasper went through this same thing. Marriage, pack unification—"

"Just skip to where you tell us what your point is," White said, not patient enough for me to finish. At least he was more kind than the red wolf was. My patience was starting to wear thin, and my temper was starting to rise inside of me because they kept interrupting me.

"My point is that you just need to learn to get along. Work together during hunts and—"

"There is absolutely _no_ way I'm going to work with this Southern piece of trash!" Red barked, snarling at White and interrupting me yet again.

"Who are you calling trash you Northern son of a—"

It was my turn to interrupt them. "_Hey!_" I yelled, probably a little louder than necessary. I definitely got their attention; I knew it because they took a small step back, and looked at me. I said, "Can you at least _try_ to work together? For the sake of the pack. Who knows, you might actually become great friends."

The two glared at each other. I was ready to interrupt them if they started arguing again. Red spoke through gritted teeth. "_Fine_. But if you try anything to mess up our hunt next time... You're dead."

"Good," I said, glad that the situation was resolved. The two of them shared one last glare before turning around and walking away from each other. I turned around to start heading back Kovu and Hailey's den, when I came face-to-face with a smiling Humphrey. I managed to hold back my scream of shock, but I couldn't keep myself from jumping back. My heart just got a jump-start from the surprise.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

I laughed at myself. "I know. I just thought you were still sleeping."

"Well, I _was..._ Until _those_ two woke me up with their arguing. Good job handling that by the way."

I smiled. "Thanks." I licked Humphrey on the cheek.

"I still can't get used to that..." Humphrey said, making me giggle. "Can you?"

"I don't know, try it." Humphrey leaned in, and instead of just licking my cheek, he gave me a full-on kiss. My eyes widened because I wasn't expecting him to do that. I wasn't going to pull away or anything though. I wanted it to last as long as possible.

Which made me feel a little upset when he pulled away after a short moment. "Okay... Now that... that just wasn't fair," I chuckled. "I wasn't expecting you to do that."

Humphrey laughed as well, knowing it was true. He pulled me in for a hug and was about to kiss me again, until my stomach rumbled. Humphrey chuckled. "Hungry?"

"Yea, and since the hunt today failed, I guess we'll either have to wait for tomorrow, or find something ourselves. Anything but berries." Humphrey couldn't help but laugh. I mentally applauded myself for getting him to laugh so much. I was starting to get back to my old Omega self. "I'm serious, Humphrey. Those berries are so bitter, I can't stand them."

"Well, maybe we can catch a fish in the river. I saw in there earlier before the wedding."

"Oh, that sounds good," I said.

I had a real good taste for fish, but I hadn't been able to eat it for a long time. My stomach rumbled again. Humphrey looked down and spoke to it, "You'll get what you want soon."

I couldn't help but laugh at him now. "Hopefully, _very_ soon. You hungry?"

"Yea," Humphrey said. "We can go right now if you want." I nodded, showing I was ready to get some food. "Let's just stop by to let Kovu and Hailey know where we're going. They might want to come along once they hear about the failed hunt."

I nodded, agreeing with the plan. With our agreement in mind, we walked side-by-side (almost pressed against each other) back towards the den. Humphrey and I both realized it; we were inseparable ever since we got together. My heart always felt warm when I was with him. The warmth didn't help against the frigid air of Winter, though.

When we finally got back to the den, I found that Linda and Aleu were still asleep; though I was surprised to find that Kovu and Hailey were awake. Humphrey seemed a bit surprised as well, making me assume that they had woken up sometime after he left. The two of us walked into the den, greeting Kovu and Hailey. I smiled. "Good morning sleep-heads."

Kovu turned at my voice, and smiled. "G'morning you two. Just where have you been?" he teased.

Hailey nudged him, realizing what he was thinking. "Well..." Humphrey said. "I woke up about a minute ago, and Lilly here resolved an argument between two Alphas."

Kovu and Hailey looked at me, almost immediately. "Really?" Hailey said. "There hasn't been an argument for quite a while; what was it about?"

Time for me to speak. "Oh, not much. Just a dispute about ruining each others' hunt." There wasn't much to say on the subject so I just left it at that.

"Nice job," Kovu and Hailey said together.

I smiled. There was a moment of silence between everyone. Have I mentioned how much I dislike Humphrey decided to use this moment to ask them. "Today's hunt failed, so Lilly and I were going to get some fish at the river. Do you want to come?"

Kovu and Hailey looked at each other and then to their two sleeping daughters. They had the same thoughts. Kovu's the one that put them to words. "We'll stay here so the girls don't get worried about us. We'll probably go later."

Humphrey nodded in understanding. I would've wanted to stay with my children as well, if I had any; no matter how hungry I was. Humphrey said, "Well, if Chloe comes back, can you just tell her we're at the river?"

"Sure thing," Hailey said with a smile.

Humphrey and I turned around to leave, and my stomach growled as soon as we exited the den. "We should probably hurry before your stomach decides to do more than growl," Humphrey said, joking about the volume of my stomach's rumbling. I couldn't think of anything to say as a response, so I just kept quiet, and kept close to Humphrey's side. After a few minutes, we came to the trench at the bottom of the hill I first went log-sledding on.

I never wanted to log-sled on this hill again.

Any other hill, as long as we know for sure that there's nothing dangerous at the bottom, will be absolutely fine. I just don't want to experience dangling in a trench again. Humphrey and I finally reached the bottom of the hill, and came to the trench. It was too wide for us to leap across. Which is why Humphrey and I walked over to the log that acted as a bridge. I hate crossing this bridge because it was so narrow. But it was the only way the two of us knew to get across.

As usual, went first. Humphrey normally did had me go before him to make sure I made it across safely. Reluctantly, I took my first step onto the log, and slowly climbed up. I stood still for a second to make sure it was still sturdy before starting my way across. With each step I took, I heard a _creak_ sound underneath my paw, coming from the old log-bridge. Humphrey followed close behind. I didn't have to see my tail to know that it was hanging low because I was nervous. I was always nervous when crossing this bridge. I remembered the old saying: _We'll cross that bridge when we come to it._ I didn't know why, but I always thought about that when going over this log.

I stepped back to the grass on the other side. I turned half-way around to see Humphrey literally dancing his way across. I laughed at how goofy he looked doing that and stepped to the side to allow Humphrey to come down next to me. "You deserve a reward for crossing with style."

Humphrey laughed. "I don't need any rewards. All I need is you in my life."

Before I could respond, he leaned in and kissed me. I had no objections. I actually loved when he did when I wasn't expecting it. It made my heart start beating like crazy every time he did. I didn't even realize it at first, but my eyes were closed as I enjoyed the moment. Opening my eyes, I saw that my fur was hanging in front of my eye again. I didn't care. Nothing was going to interrupt this from me. Except for Humphrey. I sensed Humphrey was ready to pull away, so I leaned in at the same time that he pulled away, keeping us together for a second longer; one second that I absolutely needed before we broke apart.

"I... wasn't expecting that," I chuckled, pushing my fur back to the top of my head and letting it rest behind my ear.

"That's exactly what I was hoping for." Humphrey smiled.

I didn't want to get too caught up in the moment and be gone so long that the others started worrying, so I walked by Humphrey, brushing my tail underneath his chin as I did so. I looked back to see him smiling, and I said, "Come on. Let's get some food. I'm starving."

My stomach rumbled as if on cue. Humphrey said, "Yea. And let's hurry."

The two of us continued on toward the river, staying as close together as we could get. I could already hear the sound of the waterfall, but the pulse of my racing heart was louder. We walked toward the sound, knowing that the part of the river where the fish were at wasn't too far from where the waterfall let down. Some of them even swam in the circular area around the waterfall. If it was deep enough for a wolf to swim, I don't see why fish wouldn't.

Humphrey and I walked up to the circular pond of fresh water to look for fish. Taking in a deep breath, I dunked my head underneath the surface to see if there were any fish here. My eyes widened when I saw a silver-scaled fish right in my face, looking at me. Before it could get away, I snapped my teeth to try and grab it. I missed. I tried a second time. Fail. I saw the fish, staying where it was after successfully dodging my jaws. It was taunting me... Third try; no dice.

I was starting to run of out air, so I came back up above the surface. I took in a breath of air and looked at the fish from above the surface. It was just staring at me. Waiting for me to try again. I growled at it and Humphrey laughed. "It's not funny," I said. "He's taunting me! Waiting for me to try again..."

Humphrey smiled and put his paw in front of me, motioning for me to move to the side. I did so, sitting back as I watched him. Humphrey lowered his head into the water. I shook my head, getting out as much water as I could manage. Looking back at Humphrey, I saw his head come back up with the fish in his mouth. My jaw instantly dropped out of surprise.

"Wha—How did you... You have to teach me how to do that," I said.

Humphrey dropped the fish to the ground and nudged it towards me with a smile on his face. He was obviously pleased with himself. He sat up and spoke as I bit a chunk off the fish he offered me. "I may not be good at hunting caribou, but when it comes to fishing, I'm almost an expert."

I swallowed the chunk I had in my mouth and said, "Almost? You got this one in a few seconds."

"Yea, well... I just got lucky with that one. He was a cocky little guy, staying where he was like I was going to miss." I smirked, knowing exactly what he was talking about. _You should have swam away when you had the chance._ A chill went down my spine, making me shiver. It couldn't have been from the cold air, because I didn't feel cold enough to shiver. I looked to Humphrey, wondering if he saw it, but he saw. He didn't notice because his head was already underneath the water's surface again. I took another bite from the fish, amazed at how large it was. It looked much smaller under the water.

I saw Humphrey stretching his neck, like he was reaching for a fish that was just out of his reach. I couldn't quite see what he was doing underwater. The rippling movement of the water made the scenery beneath the surface difficult to see. I saw a sudden movement, which I assumed was Humphrey snapping at a fish. I was right. Humphrey came back up and dropped the fish onto the ground. I looked at the fish, noticing something.

The fish weren't flopping around like they usually did when out of water. Humphrey said, "I'm killing them before bringing them up. Keeps them from getting back in the water to swim away."

That answered my question. I wondered how many fish it would take to fill our stomachs. I, having a pretty small stomach, would probably just need three, maybe two if all of the fish were this size. I guessed that, during the time before Humphrey and I left Jasper, my stomach must have shrunk because I hadn't been eating much. I picked up the fourth, and last, chunk of the fish lying in front of me, chewing it for a moment before swallowing it down, closing my eyes to savor the taste.

I opened my eyes to see that Humphrey was already working on getting a third fish. I looked down at the second one he caught, and realized it was closer to me. He must have nudged it toward me when I had my eyes closed. My stomach hadn't had its fill yet, and Humphrey offered another fish._ One fish is enough for me,_ I thought. _I'll eat another if Humphrey insists._ Knowing Humphrey, he was probably going to want me to eat another anyways.

Humphrey lifted his head up, and I almost laughed when I saw not just one, but _two_ fish hanging from his mouth. I could barely contain my laughter; it was so funny! Humphrey dropped both fish, and started laughing himself. "I was just aiming for one, but the second just jumped in there like he wanted to be eaten!"

That sent me over the edge. My laughter spilled out of me instantly. I laughed so hard, I couldn't keep my balance, and I fell sideways. I expected to land on the ground, and roll on my back, laughing. I didn't. I heard the splash before I felt the water. I almost took a breath of air, until I realized I was already under water. I kicked myself to swim back up, and broke the surface, taking a deep breath of air to clear my lungs. I was half-expecting Humphrey to be laughing. He wasn't. Neither was I. I was coughing out the water, trying to clear my lungs of water as I took in the air.

Humphrey grabbed the scruff of my neck and pulled me up onto the grass. I lay on my side, breathing heavily after what just happened. I suddenly felt a lot colder. I hated how the wind made water feel a lot colder. Humphrey asked, "Are you okay?"

His face was close to mine. I smiled, "Yea. I'm fine. Just—" I coughed out a few more drops of water. "I'm just cold..."

Humphrey laid his body on top of mine, sharing his body heat with me. He laid his head beside mine and said, "That better at all?"

I was still cold, and shivering, but the heat was already transferring from him to me. "Yea. Thank you."

I twisted myself around underneath him, so I was lying on my back. "What are you doing?" Humphrey said, smiling down at me.

I didn't even answer his question. I just looked him in the eyes, smiled, and said, "You better hold your breath, Humphrey."

"Huh?"

I quickly put both of my paws around his neck, took in a deep breath, and rolled over, sending the two of us into the water. All within a few seconds. It felt better in the water. Sure the water was cold, but if we were on land, the breeze would make it feel colder. I opened my eyes underwater to see Humphrey already kicking back up to the surface. I would've laughed, but I couldn't risk losing the oxygen I had. Kicking myself back to the surface, I came face-to-face with Humphrey. He smiled at me and said, "Guess you're up for some swimming, huh?"

All I did was give him an innocent smile. He looked behind him at the waterfall and said, "Follow me, there's something I want to show you."

"What is it?"

He ignored the question, and started paddling his way towards the waterfall. I swam back the where the fish were sitting on the land, and grabbed the tails of all three in my jaws before following Humphrey. _What does he want to show me? _He swam underneath the waterfall, and disappeared behind it. I quickly paddled my way over, making sure I had a good hold on the three fish. I closed my eyes as I went through the waterfall.

I came out on the other side to find a hidden cave, with beautiful multi-colored flowers on the floor. There was an exit in the back, letting in the light from outside. Small mini-rainbows were scattered throughout the place, and they seemed to be bouncing from flower to flower. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. I almost dropped the fish, but I quickly caught them before the fell in the water. I climbed onto the hard floor, shaking the water out of my fur to dry off before setting two of the fish on the ground in front of Humphrey as I sat by his side, putting the third fish in front of me.

"What is this place?" I asked, still looking around.

"I found it a few days ago. I was going to show you earlier, but then the wedding started." He lowered his head and bit into one of the fish, not taking his eyes off of the flowers around us. The floor beneath us was damp. I wasn't sure if it was from the waterfall behind us, or if it was just the water still dripping from Humphrey's fur. I could tell he had shaken out the water from his fur, but he hadn't gotten it all out.

"It's beautiful, Humphrey," I said. "Thank you for showing me."

He swallowed the bite he had taken and smiled at me.

* * *

><p>I saw that the sun was beginning to set. Humphrey and I were planning on going back to Kovu and Hailey's den to sleep there for the night. But we were both exhausted after the day's activities, which consisted of swimming, racing, and eating fish when we got hungry. I doubted we could make it back before we passed out. So, as Humphrey and I lay next to each other, resting after another race that I won (second time of the day), I looked at him and said, "We should just stay here for the night. My leg muscles are starting to ache from all the swimming."<p>

Humphrey yawned and said, "So are mine... But Kovu and Hailey are going to worry about us if we don't get back. We should have been back by now anyways."

"I know but... We can explain everything tomorrow. I just—" My yawn caught me by surprise, cutting off my sentence. I continued, "—I just feel like falling asleep right here, right now."

I had to force myself to keep my eyes open. I was starting to fall asleep, and laying down wasn't really helping me in my fight to stay awake.

Humphrey sighed and said, "I guess you're right..." He pushed the fur back from my eye, which I hadn't even noticed was sitting there until he moved it, and said, "We're both tired. We can sleep here if you want to."

I smiled at him, my eyes closing by themselves. I breathed out, "Good night."

He moved closer to me, to keep me warm during the cold night that was ahead of us, and whispered back, "Good night, Lilly." I felt him lick my forehead before setting his head neck to mine. Today had to be one of the most fun days in my life.


	3. Chapter Two

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter Two | Lilly_

Yawning, I sat up with my Humphrey to my back, still asleep. I placed the fur back to rest behind my ear. It didn't bother me that I had to do that every morning. After doing that every day for the past year, I was beginning to do it without even thinking. Noticing my tongue was dry, I decided to go to the river to get a drink. First, I had to wake up Humphrey and see if he wanted to go with me. Then I heard the waterfall behind me. _What the...? _Oh, that's right. We were in the cave behind the waterfall. I looked at Humphrey to see him sleeping peacefully. I couldn't bother him right now. He probably needed the rest after all the swimming.

Getting to my paws, I subconsciously groaned with pain. My legs were aching even worse than before I had fallen asleep. I looked to Humphrey, hoping that the groan hadn't woken him._ I'm so lucky he's a heavy sleeper. _I heard Humphrey shift in his sleep as I turned back around. I stretched my legs. It was as if all I needed was to stretch. The aching wasn't as bad after that, but it only made my legs feel a little better, it wouldn't help completely with sore muscles.

With added strength in my legs, I tested it out by taking a few steps. Still some pain, but it was bearable. It made me wince a little, but at least I wasn't groaning in agony like I had a moment ago. I walked outside, deciding I should see how high the sun was. I found the sun, to find it about half-way between sun rise and high noon. That wasn't too late in the day. Good. As I quietly trotted back to Humphrey, I decided that I should probably wake him up. We were going to have to explain to the others why we didn't make it back yesterday.

Coming up to his side, I was inches away from putting my paw on him to shake him awake. Until I heard two voices coming from the other side of the waterfall. They were a little difficult to hear over the waterfall's roar, but I could still make them out. Hailey and Kovu were calling for me and Humphrey. I hadn't heard them before. How long were they out there? I knew exactly what to do, just for fun. Running towards the water, I dove under the surface, hoping they hadn't heard the splash. What I was going to do needed stealth.

I smiled to myself, which was a little hard to do without letting out the breath I was holding, as I swam towards the shore where the two of them were walking. Their shouting was muffled by the water around me, but I could still hear that they were still calling for me and Humphrey. I pushed myself forward, popping above the water's surface. I came within inches of Hailey's face, and quickly yelled, "BOO!"

Hailey jumped back so much, she almost fell to her back. Kovu was quick to catch her. I floated in the water as Hailey almost yelled at me, "Are you _trying_ to give me a heart attack, Lilly?"

Kovu held out his paw for me, and I grabbed it. He pulled me up as I answered. "Of course not, I would never give you a heart attack. Intentionally."

Kovu asked me, "How long were you even down there?"

"In the water?" I shook my fur dry before answering. "I'd guess about twenty seconds."

"Really? So where were you before that, because we were searching around here for a while," Hailey said.

"In a secret place Humphrey found a few days ago. He showed it to me yesterday."

"Where is this secret place, then?"

I looked to Hailey and smiled at her. "You would like to know. Well, I can't tell you, because then it wouldn't be a secret anymore, now would it?"

Hailey just stared at me a second before smiling. "Fair enough. So, where's Humphrey?"

"Still asleep, I assume. I'm surprised that I'm even awake right now. We were both so sore and exhausted last night," I explained. Kovu and Hailey stood there smiling. In my head, I went over what I just said and realized how it may have sounded. I caught myself. "We were swimming all day and eating fish."

I should have thought through what I was going to say before I actually said it. Knowing Hailey, I knew she was going to tease me about that until she forgot about it. "Uh-huh, sure." Kovu walked past me and took a quick drink of water before turning back to me. "Well, if you'd like, you could wake up Humphrey and we could all have a four-way race. Me and Hailey, you and Humphrey, and Zak and Allie. A couples' race."

I thought over it for a second. A log-sledding race, huh? Interesting. It'd be exciting, for sure. I smiled, "Sounds fun. I'll go get him." I turned back toward the water, and was about to dive in. I stopped myself and looked back at Kovu and Hailey. "You should close your eyes or turn away. I don't want you two seeing where the secret place is."

Kovu and Hailey rolled their eyes before turning around and holding their paws over their eyes. Hailey said, "Fine. Just hurry up and get him."

I took in a deep breath and jumped in the water. The cold feel of the water sent shivers up my spine. I hadn't noticed how cold the water was a moment ago. Maybe it was because I was focused on scaring Hailey. That was great. Feeling a bit more pressure on my back from the water, I realized that I passed under the waterfall. So, I came back above the water's surface... coming straight into a surprise kiss from Humphrey. My eyes went wide with shock, but I had no objections so I just let myself enjoy it. I saw that Humphrey was surprised as well. The two of us remained that way for a moment, neither of us wanting to pull away.

It was usually Humphrey to pull away from the kiss, but I did it this time. I didn't even want to. The water pushed against the rock and came back with a wave, pushing me away from Humphrey. Humphrey held out his paw and laughed, "Well, good morning to you too, beautiful." I grabbed his paw and let him pull me up as he added, "Felt that it was time that _you _surprised _me_ with that move, Lilly?"

"No, actually... I was just coming back to get you. Kovu and Hailey wanted to know if we wanted to have a log-sled race with them, and Zak and Allie."

"You seriously want to have a race?" he asked. I nodded. "You do know that we'll be speeding down a lot faster than we were yesterday afternoon, right?"

"I'm fine with that," I said with a smile.

"Well, aren't you a little young to be a thrill-seeker?" he said, teasingly.

I smiled at the comment and said, "Why yes, but you made me like this, so it's your fault. Now, do you want to go race, or stay here and get sore again from more swimming?"

"Race," he answered quickly. "I don't think I'll be swimming for quite a while."

"Same here."

Humphrey jumped in the water, and I jumped in after him.

* * *

><p>"So... how will we decide who wins if it's a close-call?" I asked everybody, taking my spot in front of Humphrey. Zak and Allie were on our right, Kovu and Hailey on our left. There was about ten feet of space between each log.<p>

Kovu answered the question because nobody else would. "Well, since Aleu and Linda wanted to stay home, we got two other wolves from the pack to judge. It also seems better, because they don't favor any of us over the others."

"Good idea," Humphrey said. "Who'd you pick?"

"We'll introduce you when you get there after us," Hailey said.

That surprised me, because I never saw Hailey as a trash-talker. She must be really confident that they're going to win. I looked back at Humphrey and whispered, "We can beat them."

He smiled and nodded. "Everybody set to go?" Zak asked out loud.

"Ready!" "Ready!" "Ready!" "Ready!" "Ready!" My eyes widened when we all said it at once.

None of us even did a count-down, but somehow we all knew when to begin. All three logs were pushed forward at the same moment. The race had just began and my blood was already pumping through my veins with excitement as the wind rushing past us cooled me off by going through my fur. Humphrey and I were connected. We both leaned back without even speaking. There was less wind resistance that way, allowing us to move faster. I was positive that Humphrey was surprised how I knew to do that. I didn't risk looking back at him to see what he thought. It could make us—

I got my focus back in time to turn left and barely dodge a tree.

_Too close. Stay focused, Lilly. _For a second, I thought Humphrey said it aloud. I decided not to think about it. Better to stay focused on _not_ crashing into a tree or rock. Or stump. Or log. Or wolf... Or— _Focus, Lilly!_ Good thing my brain yelled at me like that, because a tree-stump was heading toward us. I was about to lean left, until Humphrey said to go right. I wondered why right, but I listened and leaned right. Then I noticed why Humphrey said to go that way.

He was going to have me try another ramp. Hopefully this wouldn't end up like the last time I was airborne.

I clamped my mouth shut so the screams of terror weren't as loud. I'm sure Humphrey must have heard them though. There's no way he couldn't have. I was almost frozen. I didn't want to watch what was going on around me, but I was too terrified to close my eyes. I heard a thump behind me just as we went up the slope. Humphrey must have hit the ground behind us to give us more air time. He was going to pay for doing this...

I took our time in the air to do the thing Humphrey least expected. I looked down. Bad idea. I looked back up, frozen in fear. We weren't that high, maybe ten feet. It still terrified me though. At least I had a good enough look to see where the others were. That was a good thing. Zak and Allie were behind us. Kovu and Hailey weren't that far ahead. We still had a chance at beating them.

Before I knew it, I felt the thud as our log hit ground. I felt a small sting in my paw for a short second, and I winced at the pain, trying not to shout. It was a big shot of pain for two seconds before shrinking to a small sting. I wanted to see what it was, but I couldn't do that while moving at high speed down a hill.

We continued down, racing past the blurs of green, grey, and brown. After taking a look in front of me to make sure there was nothing coming, I chanced a look back to find Zak and Allie. They were closing in on us. A look in front of me, showed me that Kovu and Hailey were moving further ahead. How were they all so fast? Had they been practicing without us knowing? Had they learned some trick to getting less wind resistance that Humphrey and I weren't using? I knew I was going to ask them.

Suddenly, Kovu and Hailey began to slow down a little, coming to the same speed as us when they got to our left side. Zak and Allie closed in on us, coming to our right. That confused me for a second because when we started, both of their logs were on the other side of us than they were right now. They were switched around somehow. It didn't take more than two seconds for me to realize it was from all the turns they took. Humphrey and I had it easy. All we had was a tree and a stump to dodge.

Kovu and Hailey, me and Humphrey, and Zak and Allie were all going to tie if nobody sped up or slowed down... Humphrey didn't bother with leaning back anymore. He just let himself drop as far as he could go. Good idea. I moved my head to the side so it was no longer resting on Humphrey's body. I was resting on wood. Humphrey and I were practically side-by-side, but I was still in front of him because the log wasn't wide enough for me to scoot up towards him. I peeked my head over the side to see that we weren't the only ones making this move. I saw Kovu and Hailey's log, but I didn't see them. Zak and Allie were moving back, not knowing how we were speeding up.

It was either me and Humphrey, or Kovu and Hailey. I looked in front of me to see if the finish line was close. I saw a grey and white wolf. Chloe? Jade? Probably Jade because Kovu and Hailey said they chose someone that wouldn't favor any of us over the other. Chloe probably would've favored Humphrey because they were siblings. The other wolf was one I didn't recognize. All I could make out from them was that they had pure brown fur.

I took another quick peek over at Kovu and Hailey's log. They were slowly moving ahead, inch by minuscule inch. And there was nothing else we could do to go faster. Humphrey and I lay down as we were, and waited. It wasn't as long as I thought it would be before I heard someone call out, "Hailey and Kovu are the winners!"

I sighed, knowing we had lost. But winning didn't matter much to me. What we just went through was the funnest thing I've ever done in my life. Even if I was terrified when we were in the air. Humphrey took control of the log, and turned it enough to make it slide sideways, making it skid into a stop. I almost fell over sideways, but I quickly caught myself but placing my paw on the grass to maintain my balance, which was hard to do because I was a bit light-headed from the sudden change in speed.

I quickly fixed the fur on my head, realizing it was messy now, as Zak and Allie skidded to a stop not far behind us. Allie was laughing. "Oh my gosh! That was so exciting! I've got to do that a— whoa... Okay, now i'm feeling dizzy."

"First-time dizziness. Happens to everyone," Humphrey explained.

"Even i'm not quite used to it," I said.

I blinked a few times to clear my vision from its blurriness. Surprisingly, it worked. I looked back to the two that had called out the winners. I was right about one being Jade. I could tell now because of the green eyes she had. I looked to the mystery pure-brown wolf that was also here. I could see now that he had icy blue eyes. But I didn't linger on the eyes for long. The scar across his face caught my attention. It started on his left ear and ran across his face, going on his nose down to his right cheek without touching either of his eyes.

I wanted to ask what happened to him to get that scar, but figured it was more polite to not ask. Of course, I knew how Kovu got his scars, but this wolf only had one, making me curious. How did he only get one scratch? Usually when someone was scratched by a bear or a wolf, it left at least three scratches. So, what happened?

Kovu must have caught me staring at him, but probably didn't know I was looking at the scar. He said, "Well, I'm sure you two already know Jade."

Humphrey and I smiled at Jade, and shared greetings with one another. Jade added to her greeting, "Hope I'll get to know you two a little better sometime."

Kovu then turned to the brown wolf and said, "And this guy here is Dakota."

"I don't wanna brag, but," he sighed as he said the next part, "I'm pretty strong."

"Yea. For an Omega," Kovu teased.

"Something wrong with being an Omega, dear?"

I almost laughed when I saw Kovu's face at his mate's voice saying that. I had almost forgotten; Hailey was an Omega too! I almost covered my mouth with my paw to keep from laughing, but I was able to keep it from coming out when I cleared my throat. Everyone looked at me, wondering if I had something to say. My quick-thinking helped me out. "Sorry. Dry throat." Not the complete truth, but it was honest. My throat really was dry after all the wind that rushed by me.

I coughed again to make it look good, and Humphrey suggested, "Maybe you should get a drink of water. That might help."

"Guess I should."

"Wait for me when you get there, we can get some more fish."

Humphrey gave me a short kiss on the cheek before I smiled and nodded in agreement. I turned around to begin my lonely walk towards the sound of the waterfall. I stopped when I heard, "Wait!" I turned around to see Jade coming toward me. "I'll come with you. I'm pretty thirsty too."

"All right," I said. "It'll also give us a chance to learn more about each other."

"That's what I was thinking."

I gave Humphrey one last smile before turning around to start talking to Jade. "So, tell me about yourself, Jade..."

* * *

><p>The two of us arrived at the waterfall in a matter of minutes. Minutes in which I learned that Jade had been relocated to this territory, but she couldn't remember where she was originally from. When I asked why she couldn't remember, she said that she had been in an accident, and hit her head pretty hard, losing her memories of everything that had happened before that day.<p>

She told me the story of what had happened, and I had learned another thing. She was friends with Chloe. I guess that's how Kovu and Hailey knew her. Why Chloe didn't introduce us to her, I might never find out, but at least we met her. Apparently, she and Chloe had been playing around in the hunting grounds when a stampede began. Jade hadn't been quick enough, and got her head kicked by one of the running caribou, knocked unconscious for almost three days. She said that Chloe told her she had been taken to the pack leaders for help. Jade had been allowed to stay there until she regained consciousness and was able to be on her own again. She told me that she had lived with the pack leaders for almost two weeks.

Jade finished up the story as I took my drink of water. When I realized she was finished, she lowered her head to the water and took a drink as I said, "So, do you have a bruise on your head from the accident?"

"Yea," Jade said, lifting her head back up. "It still hurts when someone touches it too. Real bad."

I don't know why I asked this next question, but I did. "Can I see it?"

I was shocked that I had actually wanted to see the bruise. Jade took a step toward me and lowered her head, pushing the fur on her head forward so I could see the darkened skin. It covered a good portion of the back of her head. I winced when I saw it, and almost backed up, wanting to be careful. For some reason, I wanted to lift my paw and touch it, but I remembered that Jade had told me it hurt when someone touched it. I didn't want to hurt her, so I said, "Yeah, that looks pretty bad."

Jade brought her head back up and smiled. "It's not so bad. It's a great conversation topic. It's proved to work wonders with you, at least."

I laughed, realizing the truth in what she said. Jade suddenly looked up at the sky. I looked to where she was. The sun. It was about mid-day. She said, "I should probably go. It's almost time for the hunt to begin."

"Okay," I said. She took one last drink of water as I added, "I'll see you some other time, then?"

She lifted her head back up. "Of course. And, I'm sorry I used up this whole time talking about myself."

"Oh, that's okay," I said, being polite.

"No, really," Jade said. "Next time we meet, you can talk about yourself all you want. All right?"

I chuckled. "All right, then. Promise you won't fall asleep though."

She laughed. "I promise."

Jade turned and started walking back towards the pack. I turned back toward the water, and started taking a drink. I was going to have to wait for Humphrey now. I was going to be lonely until he got here though.

A paw landed on my shoulder, making me jump. I froze in terror, and almost screamed. I hadn't even heard anybody walk up behind me. Then I realized who it must have been. I laughed at myself. "Wow, Humphrey. You made it here fast—"

I didn't get to finish my sentence. He pushed me in the cold water. I assumed it was just revenge for when I pulled him in the water yesterday. I almost laughed, but I was underwater, and already didn't have much air because of the surprise attack. I immediately started swimming back up toward the surface, knowing what I was going to say to Humphrey when I got there. _You could have let me finish my sentence first!_

Then I felt his paw holding me underwater. My eyes went wide with fear. What was he trying to do; kill me! As I struggled to get past the paw holding me down, I not only lost oxygen in my lungs, but my fear also grew inside me with each passing second. It suddenly hit me. This wasn't Humphrey. But who was it? I could see past the paw, towards the surface. But the rippling water made it difficult for me to see who was doing this.

My paws frantically tried pushing this wolf's paw out of the way. But I just didn't have the strength. Whoever was doing this was obviously stronger than me. I tried scratching into their leg, but they maneuvered it around my claws, and somehow still managed to keep me under the water's surface. I was losing air quickly. And what made it worse was that I didn't have much air to begin with.

Within seconds, my paws started moving slower. I was getting light-headed from the lack of oxygen in me. My mouth opened, and I tried screaming, but that was just a waste of air. The water muffled my scream enough to where even I couldn't hear it. The bubbles of air escaped me, escaping to the surface. The water flooded inside me, My eyes closed by themselves, and the world around me faded away into darkness.


	4. Chapter Three

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter Three | Humphrey_

I was eager to see Lilly again after the few minutes I had spent without her. I swore to myself that I wasn't going to do _any_ swimming, no matter how tempting it might seem. Crossing the log-bridge I felt the smile come on my face at the thought of Lilly. When I came out of the tree-line, into the clearing around the watering hole, I immediately started looking for Lilly, hoping to find her beautiful lavender eyes looking at me. I couldn't wait to see her smile. "Lilly?" Nothing. I looked from left to right, looking for her. I knew she couldn't be blending in with the grass. Her fur color wouldn't allow for her to pull that off. I called again, a little louder. "Lilly? Lilly, where are you?" Still nothing. Starting to get worried, I called out as loud even louder. "Lilly!"

Silence. Complete, eerie silence, aside from the waterfall. I didn't like it. Then it hit me. _The waterfall._ I ran towards the water, took a deep breath, and immediately dove in head first. I kept my paws pressed to me and flattened my body as much as I could to keep the speed from the run. I quickly looked around underwater, in case she was underneath the surface, swimming. When I started to slow, I began using my legs to push forward as fast as possible. I felt the waterfall's pressure hitting my back within seconds. I can swim that fast? Breaking the water's surface, I immediately called her name and looked around the cave that I had showed her. I climbed onto land and quickly shook my fur dry as I looked around.

I had expected her to be waiting in here if she hadn't been outside. _Oh no... No, no, no. Lilly, where are you? _I scratched the top of my head, feeling like ripping the fur out of my skin. I dove back into the water and broke surface as soon as I passed beneath the waterfall. I looked to my left, and swam towards the land over there. If Lilly was missing, I couldn't waste any seconds in finding her. Anything could have happened to her. Climbing onto land, I didn't even bother drying off my fur as I called out Lilly's name again. This time at the top of my lungs. "_LILLY!"_

I waited a second, hoping to hear Lilly's voice. Or howl. Or even a scream of pain, if it would let me know where she was. I prayed she wasn't in pain right now... Complete silence, aside from the waterfall and my echo. She wasn't answering. I mentally kicked myself. _Why didn't I come with her! _The tears were forming in my eyes. There's no way Lilly couldn't have heard that last call for her. I looked to the sky. The sun told me it was about the middle of the day now.

_Kovu. Hailey._ I had to tell them. And the others. They could all help me. I started my sprint back to the territory. I didn't even bother with walking across the log-bridge over the trench. I just leaped across the chasm, landing with a few inches between my back paws and the trench. _Come on, Humphrey. Faster! _I just couldn't run fast enough. Even at top speed, it was still going to take me a minute or two to reach the others back at their cave. They told me they were going back there before I left them.

If anything happened to Lilly, I don't know what I'd do... Kate was already taken from me. And I promised her that I'd take care of Lilly. I couldn't break that promise. Not just because I made that promise to Kate, but because I wouldn't be able to live without her. I already lost Kate. I'm not losing Lilly too. _I swear, if someone hurt her... I'll kill them._

I finally came out of the trees. Still sprinting, I ran straight toward Kovu and Hailey's cave. I was glad they were the closest ones to where I was coming from. Running downhill made my speed increase much more, though I almost lost my balance. I burst into Kovu and Hailey's den to find Linda still sleeping. Aleu was awake. No-one else was here. Aleu said, "Wow, Humphrey. What's the hurry? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Worse," I said. "Lilly's missing."

Aleu froze. "I'm sorry. Did you just say—"

"Yes. Lilly's missing. I came back to get your parents. See if they can help. But I guess I beat them back."

"Yea, I guess so," she said. "Don't worry. They should be back any second, if they were coming straight back after the race." I sat down at the mouth of the cave, watching outside, waiting impatiently for the two to get back. _Come on, come on..._ Aleu woke up Linda behind me. I hadn't even waited a whole minute before Hailey and Kovu came into view in the distance. Zak and Allie were next to them. Me, Linda, and Aleu took of running for them at top speed. We reached them in a matter of seconds.

When we reached them, I noticed that Dakota was with them as well. I skidded to a stop in front of Kovu and Hailey. "Lilly's gone. I think someone took her."

"Wait... what?" Kovu said.

"You can't just assume that someone took her, Humphrey," Hailey said.

"Well, I can't think of any other reasons why Lilly wouldn't be where I asked her to wait for me. I called out for her as loud as I could, and nothing."

Hailey turned to her mate. "Kovu, you know the Alphas here better than I do. Is there anyone that can help?"

"Actually... yes. Hailey, you take the— Aleu, close your mouth." I looked back to Aleu, her jaw was hanging open. She shut it real quick, but didn't take her eyes of whatever she was looking at. I looked where she was looking. Dakota was looking back at her, smiling. Aleu, and Dakota... I shook the thought out of my head. Now wasn't the time for that. I had to find Lilly. Kovu continued what he was saying. "Hailey, you take Dakota and the girls, and alert the pack leaders. Humphrey and I will go find Mileena."

"Mileena, of course..." Hailey sighed. She turned to me. "You'll find Lilly for sure if Mileena's helping you."

I smiled. Hailey and Dakota went over to Linda and Aleu. And just as I thought, Dakota went next to Aleu. Love at first sight, maybe? I was going to tease Aleu about it after all this... Hailey wished us good luck before turning around with the others and leaving towards the pack leaders. Kovu and I were left. "Come on," he said. "To the hunting grounds."

I followed after Kovu. We both took of sprinting. I hadn't been to the hunting grounds in almost a week. I had only been there once with Lilly, watching Chloe with her hunting group. It seemed to make her happy that we were there. Sure, she wasn't the _lead_ hunter, but she was still an excellent one. It surprised me even now that she wasn't just my sister anymore. She was also an Alpha. This was probably why we hadn't seen her for a while; all of the Alpha duties she had probably kept her busy, running around the territory.

Kovu and I reached the hunting grounds, and I was out of breath. It was a lot farther than I had thought. Not to mention the fact that I was already running for a while and didn't even get a full minute of rest afterwards. I looked around the hunting grounds. I hadn't been to this one before. This one was much smaller, and seemed to have a bit more hiding places. Perfect hunting opportunity. This wasn't the one Chloe had hunted at before. Which surprised me when I looked below and saw her biting into the throat of a caribou. Two other wolves, one black, the other a reddish-brown, were jogging up towards her. "Nice going, Chloe!" "And to think you caught it so fast!"

Kovu said, "Good. We came to the right one."

"The right one? What do you mean?"

"When Zak and Allie got married our two pack were united so now we've got two different hunts going on in different locations. I'm just glad we came to the one Mileena's group was at. And they just finished their hunt. Lucky timing for us, right Humphrey?"

"Yea," I said.

I let Kovu go down first, taking the pathway down the side of the valley to the hunting grounds. I looked ahead at Chloe, who was looking up at us with her paw over her eyes to shield her vision from the bright sunlight. She ran toward us as we neared the bottom, along with the other two Alphas in the hunting group. Chloe came up to me, giving me a hug. "Hey little bro," Chloe said. "What are you two doing here?"

"Looking for Mileena," Kovu said. He turned to the reddish-brown colored girl. "We need your help."

"What do you need?" Mileena asked, suddenly interested.

"My girlfriend is missing," I said. "Hailey said that we'll definitely find her with your help."

"Well," she said. "You've come to the right wolf. I can find anything and anyone. Just show me where to go."

* * *

><p>A moment later, we were all back at the watering hole. Kovu and I were watching Mileena sniff around the area. Chloe had decided to go back to Kovu and Hailey's den to wait with the others. I watched Mileena. She was walking around, her nose practically pushed into the grass everywhere she went. She wasn't just sniffing. It seemed that she was squinting too, like she was concentrating on finding something visual. Mileena stopped a moment, and took a few quick steps like she had found something. Lowering her head, Mileena sniffed whatever she found. Sitting down, she nodded her head and put her paw on the back of her neck like she was going tense. When she finally looked up at me, I could tell something was wrong. She moved her paw, motioning us to come toward her. I nudged Kovu in the side and looked to Mileena.<p>

He got the message and started walking at my side toward her. _I hope you got something..._ I sat down in front of Mileena with Kovu at my right side. His scars easily visible from this angle. Mileena said, "Good news; I've got Lilly's scent."

"Really?" I stood up, a bit excited now. "Then... do you know what happened to her?"

"That's the bad news..." She said. It seemed like she was ready to say something she didn't want to say. "I think I know what happened. And if I'm right, then you won't like it. Not one bit." My eyes were starting to burn by now, like the tears were ready to come out. Mileena began. "See, I followed her scent. If I'm right, then she came out of those trees over there. Then, she made her way over here, where the scent is at its strongest. I'm guessing she sat down to get a drink of water. But then... Her scent leads into the water, and just disappears."

"So... Lilly just slipped and fell in the water?" Kovu asked.

"Not exactly..." Mileena said. "You see, Lilly's isn't the only scent I picked up."

"Well... Who else was here?" I asked.

"I don't know. I just know that they have grey fur, unless Lilly's fur is grey." I shook my head. Lilly is white.

Mileena held up a small clump of grey fur, giving it to me. So _that_ was what she found... It must have shed from the wolf that had done it. I held it up to my nose. "It smells familiar, but I can't quite place who it is."

I gave it to Kovu to let him try figuring it out. He couldn't distinguish the wolf either. She said, "Well, whoever it was obviously didn't like Lilly. See, there's a scent coming from the trees in that direction, coming up behind where Lilly was sitting. Then, I guess... they pushed her in the water. Possibly held her under the surface if they wanted her... you know." She made a movement across her throat, and I understood what she meant by it, though I wish I hadn't.

"So... someone... _killed_ Lilly?" I asked.

"It's possible. I mean, don't hold it against me, Humphrey. I can't be a hundred percent sure. It's just... I can't think of anything else that might have happened here."

"Wait..." Kovu said. I looked at him. He was looking at me. "Didn't Jade come here with Lilly?"

It suddenly hit me. He was right. Jade had said she needed some water as well. And she went with Lilly. And now, Mileena's saying someone pushed Lilly in the water and possibly killed her? It all adds up... _I'm gonna kill her._

I took the grey fur from Kovu and tied it around my wrist before I turned to Mileena. "Thanks for your help, Mileena. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome," she said.

I turned and immediately ran, focusing on the direction of the hunting grounds. I heard Kovu quickly say goodbye to Mileena before I heard him chasing after me. I couldn't tell if he was trying to stop me, or if he was joining me. No matter. He wouldn't be able to stop me. I always was a faster runner than him. I kept sprinting, not even bothering to slow down, no matter how badly my lungs hurt. Lucky for me, the hunting grounds where Jade would be wasn't as far as a run as the other was. Partly because it was closer to the watering hole than the other.

I didn't even bother stopping to check if they were still hunting. I had to get to Jade _now_. I sprinted down into the valley, my eyes already set on Jade. She and two other Alphas were chasing a caribou in my direction. _Excellent. _Instead of standing where I was to wait for them, I ran straight toward Jade. She couldn't see me because the caribou was blocking me from her view. Just before the caribou could run over me, I jumped to the side and leaped at Jade, knocking her to her back and pinning her to the ground as I growled in her face. The other two Alphas stopped, looking back at me and Jade, wondering if I was a threat to the pack. Jade yelled, "Don't stop! Go get him!"

The two Alphas turned and started sprinting. Jade straightened her legs, pushing me off of her and getting enough time to get back to her paws. Jade wiped the dirt from her legs as she angrily asked, "What's your _problem _Humphrey! You probably just ruined our hunt! I almost had him!"

I didn't even bother to answer her question. "Tell me what you did, Jade."

"Well, I _would have_ caught that caribou if it—"

"No, Jade! What did you do with Lilly? Where is she?"

"What are you talk—"

I pushed back to the ground, pinning her again. This time, I didn't allow her legs to be under me. She couldn't push me off this time. She squirmed trying to get free. I growled in her face and barked, "_Where is Lilly_!"

Kovu finally showed up, trying to pull me off of Jade. "Come on, Humphrey! Stop it!"

"Where is she!" I yelled again.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I left her at the watering hole!"

"After you drowned her!"

"'_Drowned'_! What are you talking about, Humphrey! Get off me!"

Jade went in to bite my throat but I quickly jumped away, getting off her so she wouldn't make her target. I was about to jump back at her until Kovu jumped in front of me. "Stop it, Humphrey! Just stop! She didn't do it."

I was breathing heavily by now, trying to cool myself down. I looked to Kovu. "If she didn't do it, then who did?"

"Hold on a second. What's going on?" Jade asked, ready to defend herself.

"Sorry, Jade. It's just... Lilly's gone. We found your fur where her scent trail ended, so we just thought—"

"Well, next time, Humphrey_, _don't attack without any proof."

I looked to the fur around my wrist. "If this isn't your fur... then whose is it?" Jade looked to the fur tied around my wrist. I took it off and handed it to her. "Kovu and I couldn't recognize the scent."

She took the fur and brought it to her nose, bringing her face away with a look of disgust. "Ugh. Wet wolf smell. Sorry but I can't tell whose it is. The scent is too weak to identify. But whoever it is had this fur under water."

_...pushed her in the water. Possibly held her under the surface if they wanted her... you know. _Mileena's words came back to my mind. This was making things worse. If Mileena was right about Lilly being held under water, she was most likely dead. I said, "What I don't understand is why anyone would want to kill Lilly, let alone hurt her. I mean, what did Lilly ever do to anyone?"

"She never did anything, Humphrey," Kovu said. "Lilly isn't that kind of—"

"We —ot it, —ade!"

I looked to the source of the voice. The other two Alphas who were in the hunt were returning, both carrying a caribou in their jaws. That explained why the voice was muffled. Jade went up to them. The two Alphas dropped the caribou and gave their lead hunter high paws. Jade said, "Nice job girls! Let's get this back to the pack. Everyone's gotta be starving by now." She took the caribou's neck in her jaws and lifted, waiting for the other two to get a hold of it before starting to walk towards the pack.

I turned to Kovu. "Well... What should we do?"

A loud howl came to our ears before Kovu could answer. I had been here long enough to recognize that howl. The pack leader was calling the pack together. He looked to me when the howl ended and said, "Must be about Lilly."

Without even agreeing on it, we both took off towards the direction the howl came from. _Great_... _Just what I needed. More running! _My lungs were already burning up. I didn't know how much longer it would be until my lungs finally burst.


	5. Chapter Four

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter Four | Humphrey_

When Kovu and I finally reached the area where the pack leader's howl had come from, we noticed that every wolf had shown up. Good. The more wolves that were here, the more likely it was for us to get some help. I glanced at the sky to find the sun. I had been checking it a lot today. Probably because I hoped it would never go down so we would never have to stop searching for Lilly. The sun was past high noon and was starting its way down. It was still visible above the trees, so sunset was still a few hours away. I quickly looked around for Hailey and the others. They were sitting close by the pack leader. And of course, Dakota and Aleu were sitting together, talking as they waited for everyone to gather around.

I took a look around to see who else I could find. Mileena had beaten us here. I knew Jade and the two Alphas in her hunting group weren't here. We had passed them a moment ago. They were heading in this direction, but they couldn't run at top speed unless they dropped the caribou. And there was no way they would leave behind a pack's food in the middle of nowhere. A wolf from another pack, or a lone wolf, could come and take the caribou. I knew that nobody in the pack would like to hear that news one bit. And the Alphas that had done that hunt would most likely get in trouble.

Kovu and I went towards the others. I sat by my sister, Chloe. She was covering her front-right leg with her left paw. Was she in pain? As soon as I sat down at her side, I asked her. "You all right, Chloe?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," She said. "Just stings a little is all. Caribou must've done something earlier. I'll be fine though." Chloe must have known I wasn't thinking too much about her leg, because she put a paw on my back. "We'll find Lilly," Chloe assured me. "And the wolf responsible for this."

"I know," I told her. "And it's going to be much easier now that Mileena found this." I showed her the grey fur I had wrapped around my wrist. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw it and her ears drooped down a little. I said, "We don't know whose it is. It was in water, so the scent was washed off. It's still there, but it's too weak to say whose it was."

"Well, don't worry about it too much, Humphrey. We told the pack leaders. As soon as everyone gets here, they're going to tell everyone to be on the lookout for Lilly. And for anyone that looks suspicious."

I nodded with a small smile and looked in front of me. Me, Chloe, Hailey, Kovu, Linda, Aleu, and Dakota were sitting on a medium-sized rock in front of the pack. The rock we sat on was beside a larger one, where the pack leaders were sitting. I looked to the two leaders. You could tell they were getting old because they were starting to get a grey tint in their reddish-brown fur. Looking back down in front of me, I started to wonder just how many wolves were in this pack. There must have been thirty or forty wolves. Black, brown, red, tan, grey, and a couple white wolves here and there. One less white wolf now... And soon, there would be one less grey wolf. As soon as we find out who did this, they're dead. And I'll kill them myself, _personally_.

I heard the pack leader clear his throat. I guessed everyone had made it by now. He raised his voice for everyone to hear him. "Something terrible has happened today, everyone." A stir of whispering went through the united packs. He waited a short moment, waiting for the wolves to be silent before he continued. "I'm sure you all know about Humphrey and Lilly. The two wolves who have been here the past two weeks, paying a visit to their friends, Kovu and Hailey."

The wolves stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

"These wolves here, Chloe, Hailey, Linda, and Aleu, have told me. Lilly is missing."

"How!" "What happened!" "Where is she?"

I looked up at the pack leader. He didn't have an answer to any of the questions the wolves were throwing at him. But I did. I jumped up and stood next to the pack leader. The wolves of the united pack fell silent when they saw me. Apparently, they did know who me and Lilly were. I spoke up more to explain than to answer the questions. "Kovu, Hailey, Zak, Allie, Lilly, and I had a race. At the end of that race, Lilly and Jade were both thirsty so they decided to go to the watering hole for a drink. Before they left, I told Lilly to wait for me there. But when I got there... Nobody was around. So I went to my friends here," I glanced at Kovu and the others next to me and continued, "and told them that Lilly was gone. Kovu brought me to Mileena, who I believe is supposed to be the best tracker in this pack, correct?"

"She can find anything!" "Best nose in the world!"

"Yeah. Well, she told us what most likely happened." That got everyone's attention. They fell completely silent, preparing to hear what I had to say next. "She said that someone pushed Lilly in the water, and drowned her."

"Who would do that!"

"We don't know. A small clump of fur was found, but the scent on it is too weak for even Mileena to recognize whose it is. All we know is that it wasn't Jade, but it _was_someone with grey fur."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" someone asked from the crowd.

The pack leader stepped up beside me, patting my back and speaking to the pack. "That was the reason I called you all here. To form search parties. We _will_ help them find Lilly. And if she's alive, she might be able to help us discover who made an attempted homicide." He paused a second. "Now, form groups of five, and search the territory, South _and_ North. Howl if you find her. Dismissed."

The wolves ran off before I could even blink, forming their search groups as they ran in different directions. I jumped down from the boulder the two pack leaders were on, coming back down to my sister. Jade came up to us. "I'm ready to search with you guys."

We decided to split into pairs of two, instead of all of us sticking together. We'd cover more ground that way. Me and Chloe. Kovu and Hailey. Zak and Allie. Linda and Jade. Aleu and Dakota. We split apart from each other, each pair going in different directions. I couldn't help but stare at the fur on my wrist as Chloe and I were walking. We searched around the watering hole and found no sign of Lilly. We ducked and weaved between all the trees, and couldn't pick up any fresh scent of Lilly. They were all from this morning, before she disappeared. "Lilly!" we would both call out from time to time. Neither of us could see, hear, or smell Lilly at all. I was starting to get more worried than I was before. Someone would have howled if they had found her. No howls were made.

"Lilly really means a lot to you, doesn't she?"

I turned from a bush I was sniffing to look at Chloe. It was almost hard to see her. It was starting to get dark out. The sun was disappearing into the horizon, finishing up the sunset that had lit the sky for the past couple hours that we had spent searching. "Of course she does, Chloe. I love her."

Chloe sighed. She stepped towards me and put her left paw on my shoulder. "Humphrey... I... I'm sorry to say this but... if Mileena can't find her... then Lilly's gone. And I mean _gone_ gone. She's not... she's not coming back..."

"Don't say that Chloe!" I snapped at her. "She's not dead! She's not! I just know she's still a—" She pulled me in to a hug, cutting me off in mid-sentence. She wrapped her to front legs around me, putting her neck against mine. I put my arms around her, accepting the hug, burying my face into her shoulder as I sobbed. "She can't be gone, Chloe... I _love_ her..."

"Please, Humphrey... I don't like seeing you like this..."

_Aroooooo!_

A loud howl cut through the forest, making my ears perk up. I looked in the direction it came from, and didn't waste a second in letting go of Chloe and sprinting as quickly as I could in the direction of the howl. It sounded to have come from the other side of the territory. _Why so far away? _I sprinted through the forest, surprising myself when I pulled off the sharp turns around some trees by jumping from tree to tree. I was sprinting so fast, that I was surprised to see that Chloe was having trouble staying up to speed with me. She was a hunter after all, right? She had to have great speed. I was faster than an Alpha... That thought, along with the thought that someone had found Lilly, made me smile.

I slid on my paws with my head held low as I went directly under a low-positioned log that looked to be about nine inches above the ground. I felt my ears hit the bottom of it, and let out a sigh of relief when I realized that I was still running, keeping my speed. I looked back and watched as Chloe simply jumped over the log. I looked back ahead of me and quickly dodged around a tree with a short second to spare. _I'm coming, Lilly. I'll be right there! _

__Aroooooo! __

The howl came again, and I realized that I was much closer than I thought. It came from my right. I was passing them! I noticed a tree in front of me. _Perfect._ I leaped at the tree, twisting my body in mid-air before my paws pressed hard against the tree-bark and my legs retracting closer to my body. I extended my legs to push myself off the tree, successfully changing direction without losing any speed. _Did I just..._ How was I pulling off all these tricks? I'm no Alpha! Maybe it was the love burning in my heart, willing my body to do what was needed to reach Lilly as soon as possible. Maybe it was just the adrenaline from the blood pumping through my veins.

Either way, I'm glad that I was able to do it. Specially if it was helping me move faster.

I came out of the trees, into a small clearing around a river and stopping. I looked around, wondering where the howl came from, then saw her. _Lilly_. She was being dragged out of the river by a large-looking wolf. Well, he was attempting to pull her out. I ran over to them and put my jaws on the back of Lilly's neck, careful not to bite too hard. I know it wouldn't hurt her to be pulled on that part of her neck, but I didn't want to pierce her skin and make her bleed. As I helped the guy pull Lilly out of the river, I took notice of Chloe run into the clearing. Was she really that far behind? Maybe she got confused when I changed direction.

A moment later, as me and the other wolf carefully set Lilly down, I heard leaves rustling, and whispers from other wolves. I didn't bother to look up to check who it was. I was focused on Lilly. I looked at her, head to tail. She was lying on her side, front legs crossed with one another just as the two rear legs were doing. She was either unconscious, or dead. _Please be unconscious..._ I put my nose to her head and gently nudged her, praying she would wake up. "Lilly..." I nudged her again, a little harder. Her head rolled back as I called her name again. "Lilly. Please, wake up."

Still nothing...

I put my head on her chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat. As my head landed on her, I heard a tiny splash come from her head. I looked up to see what it was, and saw a little water dripping from her slightly open mouth. I looked from her chest, to her mouth, and back to her chest. I put my paws down on her, and gently pushed, watching her mouth. As I pushed, a small amount of water slid out. I lifted my paws out of surprise that it worked. I rubbed my paws together before pushing on her chest again, a little harder. I pushed once, twice, and then a third time. Each time, a large amount of water came out of her lungs, spilling onto the grass.

She wasn't waking up. I put my head to her chest, hoping to get a heartbeat. Silence... Silence... _Thump._ Silence... _Thump. _Her heart was beating! Lilly is alive! But just barely... I put my paws back on her, and kept pushing, getting out every last bit of water I could before pushing again. "Come on, Lilly! Come on!"

After another few pushes on her chest, Lilly coughed, sputtering out the water from her mouth. I thought I heard a growl as I got off of Lilly. She moved off of her side, rolling onto her stomach as she coughed the river's water out of her lungs, and gasped for air. She was breathing heavily, and looking around, away from me. She said, "Wh— where... am I?"

"Alive," I said. She turned around to look at me. I was smiling at her. She smiled when she saw me. I walked closer to her, and rubbed my nose against hers, my heart beating faster as I did. Lilly and I looked in each other's eyes as we rubbed noses. I pulled away about an inch and said, "I love you, Lilly."

"I love you too, Humphrey..."

"What happened?" I asked. "I went to meet you at the watering hole and you were gone."

"I don't know..." Lilly said. "After Jade left me, I was just sitting there, waiting for you. Then I got pushed in the water. I thought it was you, until someone's paw started holding me under the surface. I thought I was dead..."

Lilly's breathing started getting back to normal. She looked around and saw all the wolves around us. "Is there a party going on here?"

I started laughing, and everyone else around joined me. Lilly seemed to not have enough energy to laugh right now. She slowly laid her head back down, smiling at the joke she just made. When I saw that she was shivering, I laid down next to her, pressing my body next to hers. She had to be cold if she was in the water a moment ago. I knew she was going to be too exhausted to make it back to Kovu and Hailey's den. I wouldn't mind if we had to sleep out here tonight. If she couldn't make it back to the den, then she couldn't make it back. I didn't want to try making her walk that distance.

Jade saw what I did, and turned to the others. "Alright wolves! Let's leave them alone! She's okay!"

I heard a few wolves whimper a bit, like they wanted to know how this night would turn out for Lilly and I. "Kovu? Hailey?" I hadn't even seen them arrive, but I knew they were here somewhere. They both stepped forward as the rest of the wolves turned to leave. I told them. "Lilly's too worn out to move. So, we probably won't come back to the den tonight."

"All right, Humphrey," Kovu said.

Hailey smiled. "Take care you two."

With that, they both turned to head back home.

I looked back to Lilly. Our noses touched when I looked at her. I couldn't help but smile, glad that she was safe. And alive. But we would be cold tonight without a place to sleep. Then it hit me... The river. The river was coming from the waterfall, right? And behind that waterfall... "Lilly?"

"Mmmm?" She turned her head but her eyes didn't open.

"You think you can make it back to our secret cave?"

"I don't know... I doubt it."

"Well, then," I said, getting to my paws. "I'll just have to carry you."

"Wha— whoa!"

I pushed my nose underneath her and lifted her over my head, letting her slide down to my back as I lifted my ears, searching for the direction of the waterfall. "We can't sleep in the middle of nowhere, now can we?"

Lilly giggled. "You're right about that."

Her head dropped down to my side as I walked. I could tell that she was tired. I finally caught the sound of the waterfall, coming from behind me. I turned around and started walking, making sure Lilly was balanced on my back before I started walking. I could have sworn that Lilly fell asleep a few times as I walked. I wanted to let her sleep, but she wasn't able to if she was bouncing on my back with each step I took. I tried to smooth out my walking so she wouldn't move so much. Since she couldn't sleep anyways, I decided to just make conversation. "We can go back home to Jasper tomorrow, if you want, Lilly."

"No," she said. "One more day. Just one more day, then we can go."

I smiled, continuing my walk. "All right then. Anything for you, my little flower." I heard her make one short and tired-sounding chuckle. Then I asked, "What shall we do tomorrow, then?"

"I don't know..." I finally found the waterfall. But since Lilly clearly didn't have the energy for any swimming, I decided to go around back so I could just walk us in. I carried Lilly inside, and lowered my head, slowly and gently letting her slide off my back and on to the cave's rocky floor. Lilly slightly opened her eyes and looked at me. "So tired..." she said, he voice weak and tired.

"I know, Lilly," I said with a calm tone, laying down next to her to keep her warm. "You can sleep now if you want." She smiled slightly and let her eyelids droop down until they were completely closed. I moved my tail so it crossed over hers. "Good night, Lilly," I whispered. I kissed her on her forehead and laid my head down, leaning against hers. She wasn't the only tired wolf in this cave. I let my eyes automatically close, gladly accepting sleep to come to me. But I didn't fall asleep for a while, even though I hoped for it to come soon. I couldn't get my mind off of one thing. _Who would try to kill her? What did Lilly ever do? _My eyes opened slightly and I saw the grey fur still wrapped around my wrist. _Grey fur... Dislikes Lilly... Who could it be? _I came up with no answers.

I was going to figure this out if it was the last thing I did.


	6. Chapter Five

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter Five | Humphrey_

I was awake before Lilly was. That was a first. She had always been up before me. I couldn't blame her though. She looked completely and utterly exhausted yesterday. Lilly had to have been gone all day yesterday. We had been awake for about ten minutes before she went missing. And then we didn't find her until it was almost nightfall. One thing kept bugging me though. Who would do it? Why would someone want Lilly dead? Lilly is the most innocent wolf in the world, there's no way she could have done anything to anybody. So what was the reason for wanting her gone? And who would the wolf be that did it? I looked at my paw, at the fur I still had wrapped around my wrist. Grey fur...

We had spent enough time in this pack to notice just how many wolves had grey fur. Jade was among the dozen wolves in the pack with this color. I lowered my head towards my paw, bringing my nose as close to the fur as I could before I took in a big whiff. How could the scent be so familiar but so alien? It was just bugging me how that could be possible. It smelled familiar, but I couldn't place it. If I could just recognize the scent... I would find out who attempted murder, ask them why they did it, and have my revenge. I wasn't the type of wolf to kill someone, but this was a special case. Someone tried to kill Lilly.

I brought my eyes over to Lilly, hoping to get my mind off the subject. At least for now. She was safe, and that's all that mattered. The snow-white beauty hadn't bothered to shake her fur dry before falling asleep, but she was dry now. She had been air-dried in her sleep. I couldn't help but smile at how adorable she looked, sleeping curled up in a ball with her tail covering her nose for warmth. She looked so peaceful... I felt my tail slowly shake left and right as I watched Lilly sleep. I couldn't help but think about how beautiful she looked. Then the speed of my tail's movement picked up when Lilly mumbled in her sleep. "Love you, Humphrey..."

I laid my head down, my nose just inches away from hers when I whispered, careful not to wake her. "I love you too, Lilly."

She smiled in her sleep, her head rolling to the opposite side of where it had just been. I rolled my head with her, lightly pushing my nose against hers as I closed my eyes. There was something I couldn't help but wonder. What would Winston and Eve think about me and Lilly being a couple? We had been in love for a little over two weeks, yet Winston and Eve had no idea. Surely, they'd be just fine about it, right? They accept the love that Kate and I shared. And to think that Kate and I had gotten the Alpha-Omega law abolished because of our love. If they accepted that, why would they _not_ accept me and Lilly?

I lay there, watching Lilly sleep peacefully for I don't know how long before I realized she was waking up. Her eyes fluttered a few times, not even opening all the way.

"G'morning, beautiful," I greeted her.

She sat up and smiled at me. The one eye not hidden under her fur was half-lidded. She was still a little tired. "Good morning, Humphrey."

"Have a good sleep?" I asked as I pushed her fur back to the top of her head.

I moved to the side when Lilly stretched her legs forward. She lifted her body up as she brought her legs back, bringing herself into a sitting position. Her eyes were still half-closed, but she was trying to wake up a little more. She answered. "Well, considering I was dreaming about you, I'd say I had an _excellent_ sleep."

I couldn't help but smile. "Really...? What was it about?"

Her tail wrapped itself around her body, covering her paws. "Oh... I'll probably just s_how_ you sometime." Well... she usually doesn't say things like that. I wonder what she meant by it. Lilly sighed and looked around when I didn't respond. "So, what do you want to do today?"

I looked behind Lilly at the waterfall. "Well..."

She didn't even need to look behind her to know what I was looking at. She could tell just by the sound. "Anything that _doesn't_ have anything to do with water. I've had enough of that stuff."

"Yea, I kinda figured," I said. "Well, what do _you_ want to do?"

Lilly tapped her tail on her front paws to show she was thinking. I waited for an answer. I was willing to do anything Lilly wanted, for her. She finally spoke lifted her head and smiled. "I've got it! How about some hide-and-seek?"

"Hmm... I'd like to... But..." Lilly's head lowered in disappointment. She must have really wanted to play her game. I explained. "Let you out of my sights after what happened yesterday? I don't think so, Lilly."

"Oh... right. Forgot about that... Well, then..." She quickly hit me, not hard enough to hurt, but enough for me to feel it. "_Tag_, you're it!"

Lilly quickly ran out of our cave, laughing, and turned the corner before I realized what had happened. I chased after her, taking off in a sprint. I followed her scent at first, to make sure I was staying on her trail, until I got her in my sights. Then I just used my eyes to follow her. _How did you get so fast, Lilly? _She was running faster than I'd ever seen. The only reason I was even catching up was because I was able to handle the turns a little better than her. She had slow down so she wouldn't slide into a tree, but I used the Alpha-like skills I learned that I had, and jumped off the trees on the turns, keeping my speed. Lilly looked back at me from time to time, probably wondering each time how I got closer and closer.

Then she looked back just after making a turn around another tree to catch me making the turn. I jumped at the tree, bending my legs as they hit, then stretching them out as I turned my body and propelling myself forward and continuing my sprint. Lilly yelled back to me, "How'd you learn to do that, Humphrey!"

"I don't know!" I yelled up at her. I honestly didn't. I first started doing that yesterday, and never knew I could. I thought it was from the adrenaline, but I guess not. Maybe it was the adrenaline at first, and then I got used to how it worked and figured it out.

I continued on my chase after her, slowly, inch by inch, getting closer. I was still a fair distance away from her, so I knew it would take a while if we kept this up. I had already lost track of time. Not like I knew what time it was anyways. I never looked for the sun's position. We could have slept all day and I wouldn't have noticed. Lilly jumped at a tree. _What's she doing?_ I didn't stop running. Lilly hit the tree, her legs going around the sides, and she fell to the ground, her head seeming to have hit the ground hard. I stopped, shocked at what I had just seen. "Lilly!" I feared that she was hurt, because she wasn't getting back up. Though, she was moving. I sprinted over to her, skidding to a stop at her side. "Are you okay, Lilly?"

I lowered my head to look her in the eyes as I ran my paw against her cheek. She moaned, though I couldn't tell if it was from pain, which it probably was. "Well... I'm not doing _that_ again."

"What happened?"

Lilly pushed herself up into a sitting position as she rubbed her head. "I was trying to do what you were doing, Humphrey. Jump off the trees like that." Why was she rubbing her head? I hadn't seen her head hit the tree. Her paw ran over a certain spot on her head, making her wince and seethe. "Okay, that hurts..."

"You hit your head?"

"Yeah. Hit it on the ground."

"Here, let me see," I said. She lowered her head and I ran my paw through her fur, pushing it back on the spot where it seemed to hurt so I could look at the skin. It was a small bump, and a little dark. I brought my paw back down to the ground, and she lifted her head back up. We locked eyes. "Just a bruise. You'll be fine."

She smiled and stepped toward me, breaking our eye-contact, and put the top of her head under my chin. I was careful to keep my chin from running over her bruise. "I love you, Humphrey," she said.

"Love you too, Lilly," I said, putting my paw on her back.

Lilly brought her head back, and looked me in the eyes again, smiling at me. I couldn't help but smile back. I could feel her heart beating against my chest. Or was it my own heart beating? Or... both of our hearts thumping off each other? I wasn't sure. But what I did know was that I was enjoying this moment. Alone. With her. I was about to surprise her with a kiss, until _she_ surprised _me_ with one. My eyes widened for a second from the surprise, then automatically closed to enjoy the moment. I thought my heart was beating fast before, but now... I thought my heart was going to explode from all the blood pumping through it.

_Don't let this end,_ I thought. _Please don't let this moment end._ I put my right paw on the back of her head, running my toes through her fur, kind of like I was petting her. I knew her long enough to know she liked this. I didn't hold her lips against mine, because I didn't want to force her to hold the kiss if she wanted to pull back. I knew she wouldn't want to pull back. Not when we were both enjoying this. I couldn't tell who enjoyed the kiss more, me or her. I guessed me, but I couldn't read Lilly's mind. So I didn't know what she was thinking of this moment.

I lost track of how long we were like that. I couldn't tell who did it, but we pulled away. Our bodies stayed pressed together, but our heads were being held back. I opened my eyes to find Lilly's violet ones staring back at me. I saw a small glint in her left eye. Our hearts were beating against each other. We were both breathing heavily, having lost a little energy from the best kiss of our lives. We smiled at each other. I could feel her warm breath on my nose. Neither of us spoke for a moment, entranced in each others' eyes.

"Decided it was time for _me_ to surprise _you_," Lilly said.

I chuckled. "Nice surprise. Thank you."

"Oh, you're very welcome."

I put my chin back on the top of her head, hugging her closer to me, tightening my embrace.

Then I noticed them. Standing there, smiling at us, was Kovu and Hailey. "Well, well, well..." Kovu said. "Having fun there?" Hailey glared at him for the tease.

Lilly jerked her head back to look for the source of the voice. "Oh!" She exclaimed, finding our two friends staring at us. "We were just... playing tag."

Kovu teased again. "Playing tag? Is that what they're calling it now?" Hailey elbowed him in the side, urging him to stop the teasing. Kovu spoke again. "We'll give you to some privacy if—"

Hailey elbowed him again, almost hard enough to make him fall over. Kovu stumbled, managing to stay on his feet. I hoped it hurt. He deserved it. Lilly backed away from me, pushing the little strand of fur that had fallen in front of her face back behind her ear. She was probably blushing underneath her white fur. "Uh... No, that's— that's okay," she said. "We were actually about to head back to your den to find you."

_We were?_

"And you just decided to stop for a quick— Ow!"

Hailey hit Kovu hard on the back of the head, almost sending him to the ground. "I can do much worse, Kovu. Trust me."

Kovu rubbed his head. "I was gonna say 'rest' Hailey. Stop for a quick _rest_. Geeze..."

"Mhmm, sure you were, Kovu," Hailey said.

"I was!" he exclaimed, pulling his paw back from his head and putting it down on the ground. Kovu changed the subject, watching Hailey to make sure she wouldn't hit him again. "So... what do you say to another race? This time, just me and Hailey, and you and Lilly?"

I looked to Lilly with want in my eyes. I had to log-sled. She knew I couldn't turn down an opportunity at log-sledding. Lilly smiled before speaking with an eager tone to her voice. "Let's do it."

* * *

><p>After about an hour of searching, we finally found a big, long and hollow log. Kovu and I picked it up with our jaws at the opposite ends and carried it over to a rock. We both opened our jaws at the same time, dropping the log and letting it smack on the rock. The impact left a crack. "That crack should be good enough," I said. I put my claws into the crack, and pulled in opposite directions with all my strength, breaking the log into two halves. Two perfect log-sleds, each one long enough for a pair of wolves to sit on. I looked to Lilly, wondering what she thought of that. Her tail was fluttering against her face, cooling herself off. But... it wasn't hot outside. In fact, the wind was making me shiver a little. So... why was Lilly—<p>

"You ready?" Kovu asked.

I turned to look at him. He interrupted my thought. "Huh? Oh," I looked to Lilly. "Ready?" She nodded. I turned back to Kovu. "Yea, we're ready."

The next minute, we were all at the top of the biggest hill in the territory—the same one we raced on the day before—and we were sitting on the logs with our partners. Lilly sat in front of me, and Hailey in front of Kovu. I looked to Lilly. "This is your fourth time log-sledding, Lilly. You ready?"

"Sure am!" Lilly said.

"I like the enthusiasm!" I exclaimed, holding back a chuckle. I looked over to Kovu. "You two ready?"

"Ready!" Hailey answered for Kovu. Kovu nodded in front of him at his mate like he was saying, _What she said. _

I nodded. "Ready... Set... Go!"

Lilly and I pushed forward with one strong push. When we were speeding down the hill, I was still pushing, small but strong shoves ton give us what little boost we could get to be in front of Kovu and Hailey. When I figured we wouldn't be able to move much faster, I brought my paws back to my sides, gripping the sides of the sled, ready to turn when necessary. Lilly's fur was flying back into my face. I couldn't see. I moved up so my body was pressing against her back. My heart was already beating pretty fast from the adrenaline building from the slide, but my heart-rate increased when I got closer to Lilly. I leaned my head forward and put it on her shoulder so I could see. Then, just for the heck of it, I gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hey there, Lilly. Having fun?"

"You bet!"

I was glad. Lilly had said she never wanted to log-sled again after what happened the first time. The experience of nearly falling in the trench scared her out of it. But then she had chosen to do it to reach Zak and Allie's wedding in time. After that... I think she was willing to try again, because she's the one that asked me if I wanted race with the others yesterday. And then she agreed to the race today? I could tell she liked log-sledding now. But still... we were at the beginner's level. Just a simple slide down with the occasional turns. She still had a way to go before she was ready for some air-time and tricks.

"Whoa!"

Lilly caught my attention just in time. Like our brains were connected, we both leaned left at the same time, barely dodging a tree in the process. _Come on, Humphrey. Concentrate._ That was hard to do with Lilly right here though. Hopefully she'd let me know if a turn was coming up. That way, I could think about her, and still turn when we need to. Lilly leaned right. So I did too. It worked. I would just trust her to turn whichever way we needed to. Turn left. "Hey, you're getting pretty good!"

"It helps to have a good teacher like you," Lilly said, leaning right.

I leaned the same direction, avoiding a boulder. As we sped down the hill, dodging and weaving around trees, boulders, and stumps, I started to notice it was getting darker. Was the sun setting that fast? After making sure that we didn't need to turn for a moment, I looked to the sky. The rain clouds were blocking the sun now, making everything darker, and explaining the quick darkness that fell over us. It was going to rain soon, I could tell. I don't know why Lilly wasn't checking. Maybe she just didn't notice because she was concentrating on the race.

The race! I completely forgot we were in a race! I looked around for Kovu and Hailey, squinting through the darkness to find them. They were behind us.

"Left!"

I turned my head around and listened to Lilly, leaning my body to the left to go around a tree. It wasn't even a close call. We moved to the side way before it passed by us. I looked ahead of us, wondering just how long this race was going to be. It was almost over. The bottom of the hill was speeding toward us. I looked back at Kovu and Hailey. Lilly and I were going to have to tell them we were leaving. We didn't know if we were going to leave as soon as we woke up or not, so it was probably a good thing to say bye to them tonight so we don't have to wake them up in the morning. We'd have to do the same thing for Chloe. She'd be up early in the morning for some Alpha duties, so we would definitely have to say goodbye to her tonight because we wouldn't get a chance to talk tomorrow. But where was she? I hadn't seen her since last night. As Lilly and I came to the bottom of the hill—the end of the race—we were cheering with victory.

Lilly and I twisted our bodies to the right, twisting the sled to the side to make us skid into a stop. Both of us jumped out of the log and hugged each other real quick. "That was so fun! I can't believe we actually won!"

I didn't care much for winning the race. I was just glad Lilly had fun. Kovu and Hailey came to a stop next our sled and jumped out, coming around the sleds to us. Kovu said, "Is it just me or did it suddenly get dark?"

Lilly looked up at the sky as she said, "Yeah, I noticed that too."

I answered, "It's just the rain clouds blocking out the sun. It's going to rain soon."

"Ah. Okay," Kovu said. "We should probably get back to the den then."

"Right," Lilly said.

Just as we everyone was about to start walking, I said, "One thing first." Everyone stopped to wait for what I had to say. I asked, "Where's Chloe?"

Hailey answered. "She went to the cliff-side. Said she was going to watch the sunset. Why?"

"Well,"—I put my front-right leg over Lilly's shoulder—"Lilly and I are going to leave in the morning to head back to Jasper. And since Chloe has Alpha duties in the morning... I thought we should tell her goodbye tonight." Lilly and I hadn't even agreed that we would leave in the morning. I just thought it would be best so we would have all day to walk, and have a rest or two along the way, and still make it back before nightfall.

I waited for a response. Kovu said, "Well, I doubt she's still up there for the sunset if the clouds are going to block it. You can go check."

I nodded and looked to Lilly. "You wanna go?"

"Yeah," she said. "It wouldn't be right to leave without saying bye to her."

I looked to Kovu and Hailey. "We can stay for one last night, right?"

"Of course," Hailey said.

"Okay," Lilly said. "We'll be back soon, then."

As Kovu and Hailey started to turn away to head back to their den, Hailey called back, "Be careful out there. Never know what kind of creeps are out in the dark."

Lilly and I turned towards where the cliff was. It overlooked the pack territory, but it faced the right direction to enjoy a good sunset. Lilly and I had been up there a few times in the past two weeks. We loved the beautiful radiant glow it gave off. Well, honestly, I only went so I could stare at Lilly while she watched the sunset. The glowing red-orange radiant light that the sun gave off did the impossible; it added to Lilly's beauty.

We made our way towards the cliff in silence, which was pretty strange considering we usually loved to talk with each other. Maybe we were just a little upset that this would be the last time I got to see my sister. At least for now, anyways. We would probably come back some time to see everybody. I looked to Lilly. She was just looking at the ground like she was upset. I was about to say something when I looked back ahead and saw Chloe.

Chloe was sitting slouched with her head hanging low and her ears against her head. Was she sad about something? I went up to her left side, and Lilly went to the other side. I asked her, "You okay, Chloe?"

Her head snapped up. She hadn't noticed us come up to her. She looked at me, and I saw tears in her eyes. "Humphrey..." She put her front legs around me, bringing me into a hug. Over her shoulder I looked to Lilly, hoping she would know what's wrong. Lilly just shrugged.

"What's wrong sis?" I asked, putting my right paw on her back to accept the hug.

"I love you, Humphrey."

"I love you too. You're the best sister anyone could have."

"No, Humphrey. I don't love you as a brother. I _love _you."

I looked at Lilly. Both of our eyes were wide with surprise. I backed up, forcing myself out of her paws. "Okay, what are you talking about? You're my sister. You can't like me that way, Chloe."

"Humphrey. I'm sorry. I'm... I'm not your sister. My name isn't even Chloe."

I backed up even more, now confused. What did she mean? She's not my sister? Her name isn't Chloe? What... I looked at Lilly, wondering if she had anything to say. She was keeping quiet. "I don't... What do you—..."

If she wasn't Chloe... Then, who was she? And why would she say she was my sister when she actually wasn't? Lilly went up to her. "What do you mean you're not his sister? You said—"

She growled at Lilly, making Lilly back up a little. Then I noticed Chloe's leg. She was missing a bit of fur. I automatically looked at the fur wrapped around my wrist. Grey fur... I brought it up to my nose and sniffed it, taking in the scent once more. My eyes widened. Grey fur, doesn't like Lilly, her leg was injured. I finally recognized the weak scent on this fur.

Lightning flashed in the distance, and the sound of thunder came a second later.

"Lilly... Get away from her. _Now_."


	7. Chapter Six

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter Six | Humphrey_

"Lilly... Get away from her._ _Now_._"

Lilly didn't know what I was thinking. But the growl that came from the liar that said she was my sister made Lilly afraid enough to follow my command. Instead of just backing away, Lilly ran and came to my side. "What's going on, Humphrey?"

I moved in front of Lilly. My right side facing her. I didn't take my eyes off of the liar. "You figured it out, Humphrey?"

My eyes squinted at the supposed Chloe, watching her every move for a hint of an attack. She took a step toward me. I growled. She stopped. "Stay away from Lilly."

"Humphrey, please... I don't want to hurt you. Just _her._"

I stood my ground. Chloe took a few more steps toward us, and stopped when I growled. It seemed like she was testing me. To see if I would attack. I didn't want to kill her. I had gotten so close to her that she actually felt like a sister to me. Before she could take another step toward us, I spoke up. "If you told us the truth from the very beginning, things might have been different. I might have actually liked you. But since you lied and said you were my sister, I ended up with Lilly. You did me a favor by lying. Because now I know that if I had been with you, I would have been in love with a killer."

"Humphrey... I—"

"Just tell me one thing," I interrupted her. "Why did you feel the need to lie to us, to the whole pack, and say that you were Chloe, my sister? And how long have you been pretending to be her?"

"The real Chloe told me what you looked like. And I knew from what she said that you were cute. So when she was in that terrible accident, and lost her memory, I knew that pretending to be her could be the only way I could get close to you. But then you showed up here with that... _thing"—_she looked at Lilly when she said that word—"and I quickly came up with me plan. Wait for you two to fall in love, kill Lilly, and then comfort you 'till you fall in love with me."

Lilly pushed past me, confronting the grey girl, whose name wasn't Chloe. "You... you..." I could hear the anger in her voice as she searched for the right word. "You... _bitch_!" Nice word choice, Lilly. That's exactly what she was. In both senses. She continued, shouting all of her anger at the grey wolf, who stayed perfectly still through the whole thing. "So, you planned to kill me from the second you met us! How could you— I mean. Come on!" I didn't realize it at first. But Lilly was right up in her face. I didn't realize it until the grey wolf smacked Lilly on the left side of her face at the same time that the thunder from a lightning strike sounded, almost drowning out the yelp of sudden pain I heard from Lilly. And she had used enough force to knock Lilly sideways, sending her to the ground.

That did it.

I leaped at the supposed Chloe, and knocked her side-ways before she could reach Lilly. I sent us both rolling. I figured she would have tried fighting back. But all she did was throw me off of her, away from the cliff-side. I rolled the second I hit ground, quickly getting up to my paws and running towards Lilly before "Chloe" had a chance to get up. I looked at Lilly, making sure she was okay. I saw three scratch marks on the left side of her face. I carefully put my paw over them. She seethed at the burning sensation the touch left on the scratches. I knew they were going to leave scars.

I heard paws thudding on the ground, and I turned around in time to make myself ready for the girl's attack. She stopped when she saw me defending Lilly. I asked, "Why'd you stop? Too scared to fight?"

"No, Humphrey... I just don't want to hurt you. I love you."

"Well, I _hate_ you."

She flinched at my words. "Ouch, Humphrey. That hurts..."

I smiled. _Good. _Any pain I could cause her, physical or emotional, was good enough for me. I heard Lilly getting up to her paws. I made sure to concentrate my hearing on Chloe as I glanced back to Lilly, making sure she was okay. She brought up her paw and put it over the scratches for a second, before looking at her paw. The blood stained the fur it had made contact with. She used the back side of her paw to wipe the blood from her cheek as she angrily looked at Chloe. She gently pushed me to the side and said, "Let me handle this, Humphrey... I can take this bitch."

"Lilly, please don't—"

She interrupted me by turning her head towards me and looking at me with those violet eyes of hers. "Please, Humphrey. I don't need her thinking I need you to save and protect me constantly."

"Lilly—"

"Humphrey," She interrupted me again. "I can handle myself. If I need you, I'll ask you to help. But this is between _me_ and_ her_."

I sighed and looked at my supposed sister. She was staring at Lilly like she was a chew-toy. I looked back to Lilly, and looked at her eyes. I kissed Lilly, hoping to cause "Chloe" some more emotional pain. But also because I wasn't sure if this would be the last time I saw Lilly or not. I don't know what possessed me to say what I said next, but whatever it was, I disliked it. I pulled away from the kiss and took her into a hug. "Let me know if you need me to cut in."

Lilly nodded in agreement with my request. She turned her head back to face my fake sister. I didn't bother to sit on my haunches. I stayed on my paws. Just in case she needed me, I wanted to be ready. _Please... Be careful._ Lilly slowly started to walk towards the fake Chloe. She slowly started walking towards Lilly. I hadn't realized just how far apart Lilly and I had been from her until they started walking. They both increased their speed, switching from a walk to a jog, to a run. And then they clashed with a flash of lightning lighting up the battle. I could hear both of their growls.

The fight had started.

It was strange... Seeing Lilly get in a fight. Hearing her use vulgar language. Seeing murder in her eyes. The two clashed together, getting onto their back paws only as the swiped at each other. Lilly missed. Fake Chloe missed. They both landed back down on all four paws. Lilly ducked down underneath Chloe's attack aimed at her head, and snapped at her front left leg, successfully biting down hard. Chloe yelped at the pain. As Lilly brought her head back up after the bite, Chloe snapped her own jaws at Lilly, taking Lilly's ear in her teeth.

I almost ran towards them at that second when I heard Lilly's yelp of pain. I winced, knowing it hurt her, but not being able to do anything about it. I was going to wait until either Lilly called for my help, or I knew she wouldn't be able to handle it. I couldn't stand it! Just sitting here, watching the one I love fight, getting hurt...

Lilly managed to get her ear free from Chloe's jaws. She scratched at Fake Chloe's face... and missed. Chloe had ducked underneath the swipe and did the same thing that Lilly had done. She bit Lilly's leg, making my love yelp again. Only, she didn't bother to stop after the one snap. She held on to Lilly's leg, and pulled it towards her, pulling Lilly's leg out from underneath her, making Lilly fall over to her back from being forced off balance. I growled, ready to lurch forward and strike. Then Lilly rolled sideways, using her other paw to scratch Chloe's face, and make her let go. Lilly continued to roll, until she rolled up onto her paws and started running back at Fake Chloe.

I watched in awe as Lilly tricked Chloe. She acted like she was going to swipe at Chloe's face again, but instead spun completely around, using her hind legs to trip Chloe and make her fall to the ground, her face going in the dirt. Lilly quickly regained her balance after the spin and pushed Chloe sideways onto her back. Standing at Chloe's side, Lilly pushed her paws into Chloe's throat. I smiled. _She's going to do it! _Lilly got up onto Chloe's body, pressing her weight down on her to keep Chloe down.

I could see how hard Lilly was pushing down. I heard the choking sound Chloe was making, trying to get some air in her lungs. I saw Lilly's tail move once. She was happy that she was winning. My tail shook left to right, seeing the victory Lilly was having over her. My tail froze when it happened. All four of Chloe's paws came beneath Lilly, and struggled to do it. But she managed to throw Lilly off of her, throwing Lilly to the side towards the cliff. I ran three steps toward them, when I saw her rolling, thinking Lilly was going to roll over the edge. But she stopped herself, landing on her side. Chloe was already at her side. And by the time I realized what was happening, Chloe had her paws held down on Lilly. Both paws wrapped around Lilly's neck so she couldn't just roll out of the way. And the lack of oxygen getting to Lilly's lungs must have taken her energy out of her, keeping her from turning on to her stomach. That, or Chloe just had that strong of a hold on her.

Chloe's back was to me. But her head was turned back, watching me, expecting me to run in to help. Even though Lilly wasn't asking for me, I was going to help anyways. There was no way she was getting out of this situation without my help. "Y-y— know —at's messed up —out you?" Lilly choked out.

Fake Chloe turned her head back to look at Lilly. I realized what Lilly was doing. She was distracting her so I could get over there without Fake Chloe noticing. I started my sprint, making sure to keep my steps quiet as my paws hit against the earth beneath me. I noticed Chloe take her paws off Lilly's throat and put them on Lilly's chest to keep her held down. Lilly's voice was much more clear when she continued. "You planned to kill me, so you could find love. And you told us that you were Humphrey's sister. He would have caught on eventually. And then the truth would have come out. So... even if you did kill me, you would have been killed eventually."

Fake Chloe was silent for a second, knowing it was true. Then she leaned her face in close to Lilly's and said, "Any last words?"

I was closing in to her now. Lilly said, "Just three." Lilly's head moved in closer, making Chloe's head move back. "Burn in hell."

Just before I was about to jump at Chloe and push her off of Lilly, I saw her make the move. She twisted her body, with her right leg pulling Chloe with her, as she tucked her other legs in toward her stomach. Lilly had great timing with what happened next. At the right angle, Lilly's legs stretched out, pushing hard against Chloe's stomach and throwing her off. I stopped, seeing what Lilly was doing. I watched at Chloe flew off of Lilly, being sent into the air and over the side of the cliff. Then I growled when her paws caught the cliff-side. I went over to Lilly and helped her get up before the two of us went to the cliff-side, and looked down at Chloe, hanging on for dear life as her back paws searched for something to stand on.

I decided not to do anything. This was Lilly's fight after all. We stepped toward Chloe. She looked up at us, and I saw the fear in her eyes. The tone in her voice was no longer one of anger. It was calm, and pleading. "Please, Humphrey. You can't just _kill_ me. Please. I'm begging you. Don't let me die. Give me a second chance. Please."

I felt guilty for doing this to her now. She sounded as if she really meant it. I even noticed a small tear in her eye. Then I remembered, she tried to kill Lilly. "But you didn't give Lilly a second chance. So why should we give you a second chance.

"Please... I'm sorry. I'm sorry... Please, help me..."

A cold breeze flew past us. Lightning flashed in the distance, and the thunder almost made me jump. The tear that had been in Fake Chloe's was now leaving a trail of darkened fur on her cheek. I looked to Lilly. The choice was up to her. She looked back at me. I could see in her eyes that she was feeling guilty too. Lilly and I both sighed at the same time. We had silently agreed on the same thing. But one thing first... I leaned in towards Chloe, and kissed her. Eyes closed. On the lips. Lilly hadn't known that I was going to do it, but it didn't seem like she cared. Lilly knew I still loved her. I opened my eyes and pulled away from Chloe. I noticed that her eyes had been closed too. She smiled at me, satisfied with the kiss.

Lilly put her jaws on the back of Fake Chloe's neck. She said, "Thank you, Humphrey... Lilly..."

She got the wrong idea. She thought we were helping her. "I'm sorry..."

Her smile faded away. Time seemed to slow down as Lilly pulled Fake Chloe away from the cliff-side, and let go when her body swung away from the side.

Lilly and I looked over the edge of the cliff, watching the screaming wolf fall. I almost couldn't believe what had just been done. I winced when I heard the _thud_ of her body hitting the ground at the bottom of a long, _long_ fall. The screaming had seized. Dead.

"That's _got_ to hurt..." I said, a little sad that we had to do that.

I looked at Lilly, standing on my right side. I could see the three scratches still resting on her left cheek. She turned and started walking away, but not before I saw the tears starting to form in her lavender-colored eyes. Her snow-white fur was barely visible, with just the moon giving us light in the darkness under the night sky. She stopped, and sat down on her haunches, her head hung down low. I took a step toward her, thinking about what to say to comfort her. She lowered her head as low as it could get without her having to lay down.

The tears dropped to the ground, transforming the dirt into mud around her front paws. It was breaking my heart to see her cry, and hearing the sobs made it even worse. I was heart-broken. I could feel the tears starting to form in my own eyes as well. I went over to Lilly, and sat down in front of her. I lifted her head with my paw to looked her in the eyes. I pushed a strand of fur away from her cheek, onto the top of her head. It had been stuck there from the tears she was making. She just stared into my blue eyes before pushing herself to me, taking me in a hug. I hesitated for a second at the surprise before putting my paw on her back.

A lone rain-drop hit me on the end of my nose, warning me that the rainstorm was about to begin. I looked up at the sky. The dark grey clouds had been hanging over us all day. "Lilly," I said. "We need to get inside; it's about to start raining." She was trembling.

She nodded in agreement with what I said before turning to follow me. We started walking back towards Glacier National Park. I couldn't tell if it was a whisper, or if her voice was just weak. But I could still hear her when she said, "She seemed so nice when we first met her... I feel terrible for killing her, Humphrey. I really thought she was a friend."

"I know, Lilly..." I said. "I just wish I had seen through all the lies so you wouldn't have been put in this position."

It was already raining by the time Lilly and I noticed that we had arrived back at Kovu and Hailey's den. They had allowed us to stay here for the night, to rest up so we aren't tired on the way back home tomorrow. Lilly and I shook the water out of our fur. I looked around the den, wondering where Kovu, Hailey, and the others were at. Since it was already raining, I decided I would go ahead and get to sleep. They would be back soon. I let Lilly decide where to lay down before I went down next to her. I found that she was still shivering. I still wasn't sure if was from the cold air of the Winter that had just started, or the thought of killing somebody. I guessed that it was probably both. I cuddled up close to her, hoping to share some of my body heat with her.

We lay there for a few moments. I could tell that Lilly had fallen asleep, because the rhythm of her breathing had calmed down. I lay awake, replaying all of the events in my head. All of the events that had happened since Lilly and I left Jasper a month ago. The first time we met "Chloe"... I had been so happy to find my sister. I just didn't know that she was lying to us back then. That she was planning on killing Lilly. That she was in love with me. She had deceived not only me and Lilly, but Kovu, Hailey, Linda, Aleu, Zak... The entire pack! She had to have been pretending for a long time to have the whole pack fooled. But then... where was my real sister? Where was the _real_ Chloe?

Kovu and the others walked into the den, shaking out their fur. I put my paw up to my lips, signaling them to keep quiet as I nodded to Lilly, sleeping. Then I whispered to them, "Where were you guys?"

As Hailey, Linda, Aleu, Zak, and Allie lay down, Kovu whispered, "We came back to the den, expecting to find you and Lilly here. We thought you just didn't make it back in time, so we waited a while. But when you didn't come back, we went out looking for you. When it started raining, we knew you would be here."

"Oh..." I put my head back down.

Kovu went over to his mate and laid down snuggled up with her. I turned my head to the right to look at Lilly, and caught myself staring at the scars on her face. Another strand of fur had come down to her face, and was lying over her eye. I quietly brought my paw up to it and carefully pushed the strand of fur away, putting it back with the rest of the fur on top of her head. I kissed her cheek, right over the scars and whispered as quietly as I could to her, even though she couldn't hear me in her sleep. "Have a good sleep, Lilly."

With that, I laid my head down against hers and closed my eyes. A random thought came to my mind just before I fell asleep. _I hope Winston and Eve aren't worried about us... _


	8. Chapter Seven

**Prepare yourself for the longest chapter of the story.**

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Chapter Seven | Humphrey_

I woke up in a dark den. Outside it was a bright, sunny day... At a territory that I hadn't been to before. I knew I hadn't because of the scent. It was completely different from Jasper and Glacier. One I had never smelled before. It was strange. I looked to my left. Lilly was asleep, a few feet away from me, but she looked different... She looked a little younger. How was that possible? Her fur was hanging in front of her eye like it usually did when she slept. A pretty blue flower was in her fur. Weird. She never wears a flower. I looked around. _Where are we...?_

"One of them's awake!" I heard it come from outside, so I turned to search for the source of the voice. A grey wolf ran up to me. "You okay kid?" he asked.

"I'm no kid..." I complained, feeling a headache coming on. I started to lift my paw towards my head when he stopped me. "Don't do that. It's just a bump."

"A bump? What happened?"

"I don't know. You tell me. I just found you and your friend floating in the river, so I brought you home. Are you okay? Can you walk?"

I felt weak. So I wasn't sure if I could walk or not. "I don't know. Let me try..." I brought my paws towards me before attempting to stand up, my teeth clenching at the pain in my legs. I fell back to the ground beneath me with a thud and a grunt. "No... I can't. Hurts too much."

"No worries. Just get some rest. I'll be right back." He left the den, running.

_Seriously... What's going on? How'd we get here? Where are we? _I looked back to the sleeping Lilly with the blue flower. It was strange that she looked a little younger. I watched her for a moment before her eyes slowly opened, fluttering for a second. She groaned and yawned. Stretching her legs forward, she quickly pulled them back, wincing. So I wasn't alone in the pain.

Whoa. Even her voice seemed different. A little bit more high pitched than usual. That was another new thing about her. I didn't notice it before. But it looked like her fur had been wet, and still was a little bit. "Morning sleepy-head."

She looked at me like she was startled by my voice. Another surprise for me. Her eyes weren't the same violet I had come to know. They were blue. Like the flower in her fur. "Good morning." Yeah. Her voice was definitely different. The one word hadn't been enough for me to make sure. But that time it was obvious. "Where are we?" She tried standing up, and fell back to the ground just like I had. "And why do my legs and head hurt?"

"No idea..." I said. "I just woke up myself. Some wolf was just here a minute ago. Said he found us in the river, unconscious, and brought us here. That's all I know. He said he'd be right back and ran outside."

We lay there for a moment, looking around the den. So strange... We had just killed an impostor of my sister, and now we were lying in a strange den in a strange territory while Lilly's eyes were a different color and she looked younger, and with a blue flower she had never worn before, and she had a different voice. _WHAT'S GOING ON? _Then the grey wolf came back in the den, followed by another grey wolf. Blue-eyed. Female. She looked familiar for some reason. The guy from before said, "Oh, the girl is awake now too. That's good. Can you walk?"

"Nope. Already tried."

"No worries," the girl wolf in front of us said. "Do you two remember what happened?"

"Nope," Lilly said.

"Well, allow us to introduce ourselves," the guy said. "My name is Mike."

The girl was next. "And I'm his mate, Chloe."

* * *

><p><em>CHLOE! <em>I suddenly jolted awake, my paws flying to my sides as I sat up. "Ow! What was that for?" I was back in Kovu and Hailey's den. I looked at Lilly. She was back to her normal self. No blue flower. Her voice was the same as I remembered. Her eyes were the lovely violet again. She looked the same as when I'd fallen asleep._ It was just a dream? _Lilly asked again, "Humphrey? Why'd you hit me? You don't hate me, do you?"

"Huh?" I must have hit her when I jolted awake... _Crap_. "Of course not, Lilly! I could never hate you. And... I'm sorry I hit you. It was a complete accident. My dream just... shocked me. Sorry."

"What was it?"

"I don't even know... Me and you were in some territory that neither of us knew. Your fur looked like it had been wet, but dried a little. You were wearing a blue flower. Had blue eyes... And looked younger."

"Younger, huh?" Lilly said, interested now that I said the magic word. "I like this dream so far. Continue."

I chuckled. "Well... our heads and legs hurt. We didn't know where we were. Then this guy came in with his mate. Said their names were Mike and Chloe."

"Chloe?"

"But... it was just a dream, Lilly. Probably means nothing..."

"Yeah... nothing... But, tell me more about myself in your dream. You said I'm younger?"

I chuckled. "Yes, Lilly. You were younger. But you were still just as beautiful as you are now."

She smiled and moved her head closer to me, nudging her head under my chin. "I love you, Humphrey. Even if your sister _did_ turn out to be an impostor of your real sister that wanted to kill me."

I laughed that time. "That's the weirdest sentence I've ever heard. But it's funny 'cause it's true."

Lilly let out one chuckle. "Y'know... I still dont' think she should have just let her die like that. Not when she was pleading for us to help her like that..."

"I know, Lilly... But we couldn't just let her go. There's no way we could trust her to run free. She could have tried it all again with someone else. I don't want that happening."

Lilly sighed. "I know..."

"Let's just get some more sleep."

"Yeah. There's no telling how long we'll be walking. We'll need the energy."

_Right... _I completely forgot. We were going to start our way home to Jasper in the morning. Lilly kept her head where it was. Maybe she was cold from the night air? I closed my eyes to get some sleep, knowing she probably wouldn't want to move her head away from me. Fine by me. I lay there for a while, waiting for the sleep that never came. I didn't even feel that tired anymore... I thought about Lilly beneath my head. And the question that had been on my mind all day yesterday. _Ask her now._

I whispered her name. "Lilly?"

She didn't move, or say anything. Asleep. I didn't want to bother her if she was sleeping.

My mind kept coming back to the dream. Why did Lilly look different. Where were we at? Where was _that_ Chloe? The nice Chloe that had to be my real sister... It was too different from other dreams I've had. In other dreams, I usually realized I was dreaming. But this one... It seemed completely real. I had no idea it was a dream until I was already awake. Even if I didn't know it was a dream from the beginning, I usually would have realized it about halfway through. I had no clue this time.

I kept going over the dream over and over in my mind, looking for a clue as to where it could have been. I had to figure it out. Specially if it meant I had a chance at finding my sister. And if that was her mate... Then it meant she lived there. Maybe our parents were there too. I smiled. It would be nice to see Chloe again. The _real _Chloe. And our parents... I fell asleep to the nice thought.

* * *

><p>I woke up with Lilly's eyes looking directly into mine. "Now that's a nice sight to wake up to," I said, smiling. Lilly sat up on her haunches as I stretched forward and brought myself up to sit with a yawn. I looked around to find that Kovu and Hailey were still sleeping. Everyone else was gone. The sun barely gave enough light inside the den for us to see. But when I tried looking outside, my eyes burned with the brightness. I quickly turned my head back to Lilly, trying to regain my sight. "Been up long?"<p>

"Couple minutes."

I tried to remember what I had dreamt about between now and the last time I was awake. It was all blank. Couldn't remember anything. I wasn't surprised. It happened sometimes.

"So, Humphrey... Who's Skye?"

I looked at her, confused. _Skye? What? _"Huh?"

"Skye. Who is she? You kept mumbling about her in your sleep. Said something along the lines of... 'Skye, don't go. It's too dangerous.'" She mocked my voice.

_Skye? _"I did?" I asked. Lilly nodded. I looked to the ground, and could tell my face showed my confusion. "Skye... It doesn't sound familiar."

"Hmm... Well," Lilly said, "whoever it is, you were pretty attached to them in your dream." I stayed silent for a moment, trying to figure out why I might have said it. Who was Skye? "Hmm... Skye... Actually a cute name, don't you think?"

"Uh... I guess. Actually. Yeah, it is. I like it. Anyways, you ready to start our way home?"

"Sure. We should tell Kovu and Hailey we're leaving though. So they don't worry."

"Right. Almost forgot."

I walked over to Kovu and started to shake him. I didn't bother to be gentle with it. This was how I used to wake him up when he still lived in Jasper. He was awake in a matter of second. "Hey, hey, hey! What's going on?"

"Oh good, you're up."

"Well, I am now..." Kovu stretched and sat up. "Something wrong?"

"No. We were just about to—"

"Oh my gosh, are you okay!"

Kovu and I instantly looked over to see Hailey getting to her paws in front of a confused Lilly. Lilly just sat there, looking at her. "Um... Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because of the three scratches on your face," Hailey said. "That's why." Oh... Right. We hadn't told them about the girl we thought was Chloe. Kovu looked at me, most likely wondering what happened.

I walked over to Lilly. We were both sitting in front of Kovu and Hailey now. They were waiting for an explanation. We told them everything that happened. About "Chloe" and her plan. About how she was the one that tried to kill Lilly. And the fight. And the cliff. Kovu and Hailey listened to each word we told them, shocked that "Chloe" had been lying to us all this whole time. No. Not just to us. To this whole pack. And there was no way that any of us could have known about it.

The two were silent for a moment after we finished, probably waiting to see if there was more. Then Hailey spoke up. "So Chloe... The girl we _thought _was Chloe... planned to kill you from the moment she met you?"

Lilly nodded her head. "And I called her a bad word because of it too... I think that was the worst part of it."

I looked at Lilly. _Really? She thinks calling that girl a bad word is worse than almost getting killed? _"Oh no..." I said, teasingly. "You cursed. First time in your life. How'd it feel?"

Lilly looked at me, smiling at my teasing. "Pretty good, actually. I'll most likely never say it again though."

I chuckled. "Good. I don't know what Eve"—I saw Kovu flinch at the name—"would do if you said it in front of her."

"Eve... I forgot about her," Kovu said. "She still the same as when we left?"

"If by 'same' you mean she still scares everyone with her calm-sounding threats, then yes," I said. "She's the same."

Kovu and I looked at Lilly. And both said it at the same time. "No offense."

"Oh, none taken." Lilly sat straight up. "I agree completely. She scares me sometimes."

All four of us sat there for a moment, letting that sink in. I hate awkward silences... "Well, Lilly. You ready to go?"

"Oh. Yeah." She took a step toward Hailey and put a paw on her back, bringing her friend into a good-bye hug. "Bye Hailey. It was nice seeing you again."

"Likewise," Hailey responded. "Hope you can come back sometime."

Then Lilly turned to Kovu and gave him a hug as well while I went up to Hailey for my own hug with her. Then, when Lilly came out of her hug with Kovu, I went up to him. We sat there awkwardly for a second, then I put up my paw. We bumped paws and chuckled at the awkward moment we just had. "We'll try to come back soon, guys," I said.

"You better," Kovu said. "We need to whoop you in a race. Again."

"Don't be so cocky. That was just one win," I told him. "And we tied the score yesterday."

"You had luck on your side," Hailey said, smirking.

I laughed. "Ha! Yeah, right. ... Well, we'd better get going. The longer we're gone, the worse it could be when we get back to Winston and... Eve."

"Oh," Kovu said. "You better hurry then. With those scars, it's probably bad already."

_Great. _"Yeah," Lilly said. "Well, when the others get back, let them know we said bye and that we might come back sometime. 'Kay?"

"All right." They both said it.

I looked at Lilly. "Time to go."

She nodded. Then we both took off, running out of the den at top speed, side-by-side. We were out of the territory's boundaries within a minute or so. It was strange, leaving this territory. It had really grown on me. The hills were amazing for log-sledding, for one thing. But I had also grown to like the waterfall. And that little swimming area, even if it did tire out my legs. And that fish tasted amazing. I was going to miss mine and Lilly's secret cave. I hoped Kovu and Hailey wouldn't go looking for it and find it before we came back to visit. For some reason... I even missed that trench, and the little log-bridge put there for us to cross. I didn't know why. I had hated those things. So why would I miss them, right?

No idea.

I looked at Lilly, running beside me. Her fur flying back with the wind, staying out of her lovely violet eyes I had come to love. I sort of hoped they would never go blue. Like the Lilly from my dream. Lilly looked back at me, and smiled. I couldn't help but smile back. I would always love her. No matter what. The scars on her face didn't matter to me. I didn't care. I loved her for who she was. And that would never change. "I love you, Lilly."

"Love you too, Humphrey. Always." _Dang, she bested me... _Oh well. She looked back in front of her, and I saw her eyes widen for a second before she moved a bit away from me. I saw a blur of brown between us, right where Lilly had been, and then she came back closer to me. We both looked back at the tree speeding away from us. "Phew, that was close."

"It might be better to just walk..."

"Yeah..."

We slowed down our pace, turning our sprint into a run, into a jog, and then finally into a normal walk. The two of us walked... and walked... and walked... and walked... We walked for I don't know how long before I started feeling tired. My paws started to ache, and my legs were getting extremely tired. I looked to Lilly. Her head was hanging low, her tongue hanging from her mouth as she panted. "Let's just stop and rest for a minute..."

Lilly looked up at me. "Good idea."

We both stopped. I looked around. Trees. Shade. Lilly followed me into the shade and we lay down together, our hearts beating off each other, only beating quick because of the walking. Well, our love for each other was probably another reason as well, but it was mostly from the walking. It was for me, at least. I couldn't be sure about Lilly, but I figured it was the same. I couldn't believe how hot out it was today. It just made it worse for us.

* * *

><p>I woke up to feel Lilly's head nudging me. <em>Crap... <em>We weren't back at the den, were we? I don't think I'd be able to take all that walking again. I opened my eyes to see Lilly. I smiled. At least one good thing came from waking up. "Hey there."

"I can't believe it, Humphrey. We fell asleep."

I looked around. We were on grass. Underneath a tree. It was dark out. I hadn't even realized it. _When did I fall asleep? _I looked back to Lilly. "We slept all day?" She nodded. "I didn't even realize..."

"Same here. But look..." She looked up at the sky. I sat up as I followed her gaze to find that the moon was full. It was large and glowing beautifully, surrounded by stars as well.

"Beautiful..." we both sighed at the beauty of it. I looked back at Lilly, she was still looking at the moon. My heart was beating faster already. _Ask the question, Humphrey. Just do it._ Right now seemed like the best time to ask it. "Lilly...?"

She looked away from the moon, back to me. "Hmm?" Her fur fell back in front of her eye as she brought her head down. I leaned in and nudged it back to the top of her head with my nose because I loved to see her eyes.

"We... we really love each other, right?"

"Of course. I don't think I could love anybody more than you." She moved closer to me, putting her head beneath my chin and making my heart-rate increase. I gulped, trying to swallow my nerves.

"Good. Because... I have something to ask you."

She pulled her head back from me, looking in my eyes. "What is it?"

"Lilly... I know we've only been together for two weeks, so I'm probably asking this too soon. So I'll understand if you say no... But..." It made me more nervous, looking her in the eyes as I spoke, but it was better that I was. It made the moment better. "Lilly... Will you marry me?"

My hear-rate picked up, wondering what she'd say. It had only been two weeks since we fell in love. So if she said no right now, I'd understand. One second, I was sitting up. The next thing I knew, I was on my back with her standing over me, her tail happily swishing left and right so fast it was a blur. She was licking my face and yelling, "Yes, Humphrey! Yes! A thousand times yes!" I couldn't help but laugh. I loved her way of answering. I was the happiest wolf in the world right now. Glad that she said yes. Boy, Winston and Eve are gonna be so surprised. They didn't even know we were in love, and we were going to be married. I could hear Eve's voice now... _"Exactly what happened while you two were gone?"_

When Lilly finally stopped, and looked at me with pure love in her eyes, I asked. "You... don't think I asked too soon?"

"Well... yeah, I do think that. But I'd still love to marry you, Humphrey. I'd just like to know... Why did you ask so soon? I figured you to be the kind of wolf who would have waited longer."

I had my response for that prepared. "Well... I know that mating season is almost here. I just thought... since we won't be able to control ourselves, and if something happened... we should be married first. Y'know?"

"Ah. Smart thinking. It'll keep you out of trouble with my mom."

"That too."

We shared a quick laugh. Then she slowly leaned her head toward me, still standing over my body, and kissed me. It was more passionate than all the others kisses we've shared before this moment. Pure love was shared in that one little spot of contact between our lips. I didn't bother closing my eyes to enjoy it. I enjoyed it more by looking in her violet eyes as we kissed. I brought up my right paw, and caressed her left cheek, running my paw over the scars. I lost track of how long we were like that. Seconds? Minutes? Couple hours? I had no idea. But when she finally pulled away, I wished she hadn't.

"That was... different," I said, not sure what to say about a kiss that amazing. I couldn't put my thoughts on it into words. The best word I could think of was... _Perfect._

"Yeah..." Lilly said, smiling down at me.

"Can I... Get up now?"

"Oh." She lifted her paws, and went to the side so I could get up. "Sorry."

"S'Okay. I forgot I was on my back 'till just now anyways."

I sat up in front of her. My future wife. Moment of silence. If neither of us were going to do or say anything... Then we were wasting time. I could tell the direction by using the tree we slept under as a reference point. I started walking off in the direction I knew Jasper would be. "We should probably... keep going."

"Right."

We continued walking... and walking... and walking... As we walked, we were silent. I didn't know about Lilly, but I couldn't stop thinking about our wedding. And that kiss we shared. The hours passed as we walked. As those hours passed, the sun was starting to rise. I was starting to get a little tired again, but we kept going because the familiar scent of Jasper was starting to come in to my nose. We were close. I looked to Lilly. Her eyes were closed, her nose wiggling adorably as she smelled the air. She knew we were close too.

We didn't bother with walking anymore. The two of us took off in a sprint. Our destination: Her parents' den. They had to be in there. They would either be awake now, or would be awake soon. Some wolves were already awake and out walking around. I could hear their voices as Lilly and I sprinted home. "It's them." "They're back!" "They're alive!"

_Alive? _Did they think we were dead? Well, we were gone for two weeks. I could see why they'd think that. But we knew something that none of these other wolves did. Lilly and I were going to get married. Yes. I still can't get that off my mind. "Hey, Humphrey!"

I looked in front of me towards the familiar voice, still running with Lilly. The voice came from Shakey. He, Salty, and Mooch were all together. Sitting as Lilly and I ran towards them. We ran past. I yelled back to them after we past. "See you guys in a couple minutes! We've got something to do first!"

"All right! Don't keep us waiting!" Salty yelled.

"Okay!"

It seemed as if nobody saw Lilly's scars. Maybe they just couldn't get a good look at us because we were running so fast. I looked back ahead to see Winston and Eve's den. Closer... Closer... Then we slowed down to a walk just before we went inside. We knew how Eve felt about running, unless it was for hunting purposes. They were awake, talking with each other. "Surprise!" Lilly exclaimed.

Winston and Eve both snapped their heads toward us. "Lilly!" Eve ran toward her daughter, and looked ready to pounce on her. Then stopped. "What... happened? Someone scratched you?"

The scars... _It wasn't me, Eve... Just know that._ She didn't even glance at me, like she knew it wasn't my fault. Winston looked at me though. Not with an accusative look though. More of a _What happened? _look.

"I'm okay, mom. Really. They're just scratches."

I looked back to Eve and Lilly. Eve was making a big fuss about the scratches. Lilly finally just stopped her mother and said, "Mom. Dad. We have great news."

_It's time... _I went over to Lilly's side, sitting as close as possible. Her two parents waited. Though it looked like they figured it out from the smiles on their faces. I looked at Lilly and smiled. She smiled back before we looked back at Winston and Eve. I spoke up. "Winston... I know I should have asked you first. But, considering she's already said yes. I'd like to ask for your blessing. I asked Lilly to marry me."

That shocked them. They thought the news was just me and Lilly falling in love. They had no idea there was a proposal. Lilly leaned her head against my chest. Winston's jaw was wide open. That was a first. I'd never seen him so surprised. I looked to Eve. She had the same expression. She looked at me and asked, "Well.. I'm very happy for you two, but... Exactly _what_ happened while you two were gone?"

I felt like cracking up at that exact moment. Those were the exact same words I imagined her saying. We both smiled at her response to the news. Lilly and I answered together. "Long story." Then I added. "So... Do I have your blessing, sir?"

Winston was frozen stiff. A statue. His jaw hanging wide open. Eve waved her paw in front of his eyes. He stayed still. She put her paw underneath his chin and shut his mouth. With enough force to knock him back into reality. He shook his head, trying to get a grip on the here and now. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

"Do I have your blessing to marry your daughter?"

Winston started pacing around the den. Thinking about it. "Let me get this straight... You leave Jasper. And come home asking me for my blessing to marry Lilly? I'm sorry. I'm just... trying to make sense of all this. Exactly when did this... _love _between you start?"

Lilly and I looked at each other, thinking about exactly when it happened. "Two... maybe three days after we left."

"And... you never came back home to tell us?" Eve asked, beginning to stalk towards me. I was about to start backing away, but Lilly put her paw on my back like she wanted me to stay. Eve was getting scary close to me now. Looking me in the eyes. "Why didn't you come home?" she asked, her face a few inches from mine. I wasn't sure if I was shaking or not. I hoped not.

I made sure to keep my face straight. Try not to look scared of her. If I was going to marry Lilly, I couldn't be scared of her mom. I always heard about the relationship between a guy and his mother-in-law being bad. Not ours. Ours was just scary. Lilly answered for me, seeing that I couldn't think of anything to say. "We ran into some old friends of ours. Remember Hailey? And Kovu?"

Eve turned her eyes away from me to look at her daughter. She pulled back and sat on her haunches where she had been before. I subtly let out a sigh of relief. Winston was listening to everything we said as he paced around the den, thinking. "Oh yes, I remember them. They were both of your best friends, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "And their oldest son was getting married, so we stayed until the wedding. Then, we just stayed another couple of days."

"And... Humphrey," Eve said. "Exactly why did you ask Lilly to marry you so soon? She's not pregnant, is she?"

My mind was screaming at me to tell her yes as a joke. But I'd be dead before I could say I was joking. Honesty was the best bet with Eve. "No. She's not. But, mating season is starting soon. I know we won't be able to control ourselves, so I thought it'd be best if we were married before we did... _that._"

Eve stared at me. I guessed she was trying to find something in my expression to see if I was lying. She smiled after a moment and said, "Such a thoughtful boy."

Lilly spoke up. "So can we get married, dad?"

Winston stopped when he was spoken to again. He looked back at us, switching his eyes between me and Lilly. We both smiled innocently. Then he finally sat down next to Eve. On her right side. He looked to Lilly. "Are you truly in love, Lilly? This isn't just some lust-type of thing, right?"

She sighed. "I'm not like that. We really love each other, dad." Lilly said this as she rubbed her head underneath my chin.

It looked like the dad part at the end had some sort of impact on Winston. My confidence in this boosted. _Nice, Lilly._ He looked to me. "Humphrey... Will you keep my daughter happy and safe every day?"

"Every day, sir," I said. "I promise I'll keep Lilly happy, and never let anything or anybody hurt her. If she ever gets upset about anything, I'll be by her side to cheer her up."

I noticed Eve smile wide at what I had just said. She looked to Winston like she wanted him to just hurry up and say it was okay. Winston looked around at all of us. From me, to Eve. To Lilly. And back to me. It looked like he made up his mind. He smiled at me. "Then you have my blessing, Humphrey. Welcome to the family."

I blinked, and found myself on my back again, with Lilly standing over me. _How does she do that so fast? _I barely had a second to smile at her before she kissed me again, just like when I asked her to marry me. I heard cheering come from behind me. Lilly pulled her lips away from me, and looked up. I turned my head to follow her glance. There were so many wolves outside, cheering. Howls and barks everywhere. For me and Lilly? We must be really popular. Then I heard Salty's voice over the whole crowd. "You lucky dog!" Lilly and I looked back to each other and laughed. I leaned my head towards her and caught her in another kiss.

Our hearts were beating off each other. We were going to be married soon. Why _wouldn't_ our hearts be like this? I heard Winston's and Eve's voices behind me. "Okay everybody! There's nothing to see here!" "Get back home!"

"When's the wedding?" I heard someone yell. Everybody went quiet. And there was no noise.

Lilly and I broke apart from the amazing kiss when we heard the question. We hadn't even thought about it. It was strange. An entire pack gathered in one spot, and I could hear a cricket chirping. After a second, even the cricket went silent. A gentle breeze blew into the den, flowing through Lilly's fur strong enough to make it waver a little. "Well, Lilly?" I said. "When is it?"

"You're... letting me decide?" she asked.

I smiled, letting her know her assumption was correct. Lilly looked up from me at the crowd. I kept my sight on her face as she looked around at everybody. I imagined the Winston and Eve were just staring back at us, waiting for the answer. "We'll start the wedding whenever you want to."

She looked back down to me. "_Today_. In a few hours, so we can get cleaned up."

"So soon?"

"Oh, like you can talk about 'too soon', Humphrey."

I laughed. She had me there. Clever girl. I realized I was still on my back. And Lilly was standing right over me. With the whole pack looking at us. And everybody was quiet. Talk about awkward. "Um... Lilly? Can I get up now?"

"Oh, sorry."

She got off me, stepping to the side. I heard a few chuckles from the pack. I sat to Lilly's right side in front of the pack. There were more wolves in this pack than I thought. I took one look at the whole group standing in front of us. It looked like the wolves from the East and West were all here. I saw Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Reba, Janice, Candy, Sweets, Claw, Scar, Candu, Hutch... Everybody was here, let's leave it at that. I rose my voice so it would be loud enough for everyone to hear. "I let Lilly decide when the wedding will be. She chose today. In a few hours to be a bit more accurate."

"Probably not even a few hours," Lilly said to everyone. "Just, after we've cleaned up a bit."

* * *

><p>I was still surprised that Lilly had chosen today. I guess it was pretty reasonable though. Why wait for tomorrow when today just started? I sat in the river, rubbing the water all over my fur, rinsing out any speck of dirt I found. Salty, Shakey, and Mooch were by the river, talking to me. "Nervous?" Mooch asked me.<p>

I scratched my head, scratching out any dirt that might be there. "Little bit."

"What's your secret, Humphrey?" Salty asked.

I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. "My secret?"

"Yeah," He said. "You and Lilly were just friends two weeks ago, and now you're getting married. You must have some sort of trick, right? What is it?"

"No... There's no trick."

"Well, how'd you do it, then? You got Kate, and now you've got Lilly. You're the luckiest guy in the pack, Humphrey. They're the two hottest girls in Jasper."

"Make 'em happy, and show them you love 'em. That's all I do," I responded.

"Yeah, Salty. There's more to it than just saying 'hey'," Mooch said.

I laughed as I continued with my washing. I was almost sure that I had gotten out every speck of dirt that could have possibly been there, but I just wanted to make sure I got everything. I had to look my best for this. I looked up at the three guys. My attention immediately turned to Shakey because he looked upset. "Come on, Shakey. Something wrong? You haven't said anything since we got back."

He lifted his head to look at me. Salty and Mooch looked at him, realizing what I said was right. Shakey just sighed. "It's just... Reba and Janice. I know I can't be with both of them."

"So pick one," I said.

"I can't just _pick_ one, Humphrey."

"Okay... Say both of their names," I said. He looked confused for a second. "Trust me, Shakey. Just say both names."

He shrugged and went ahead with it. "Reba and Janice."

"There you go," Salty said. He must have caught on to what I did. "You said Reba's name first, so you must like her more. Problem solved." Yeah. He knew what I was doing.

"But..." He sat up straighter, like he realized something. "You know what? I actually do like Reba a bit more... Okay, how'd you know to do that, Humphrey?"

"Simple. It's like choosing between meat and berries. Have someone throw a leg of caribou and some berries at you. Whichever you decide to catch is the one you like more. I basically just did the same thing here."

"... You've gotten smarter since you left," Mooch said.

"And you've gotten a little thinner. You trying to trim down for someone?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking of asking Candy to the Moonlight Howl sometime. But I want to lose a little weight first." He sat up on his two hind legs and patted his stomach twice.

"How are you doing it?" I asked because he had lost so much for only two weeks. It wasn't a _lot_ but if you're told that it was just two weeks, you'd think he was lying.

"No food unless I'm absolutely starving, and I'm jogging every morning and afternoon."

"Wow. Nice work. I can already see a difference."

"Humphrey." I turned to see Winston. "Lilly's ready if you are. She's still at the den, waiting to hear if you're ready to start."

"Yeah," I got out of the river and shook my fur dry, grabbing the pine-cone I'd brought with me. I started running it through my fur so it wasn't so scruffy-looking as it usually was. I combed through my fur as I told Winston, "Tell her I'm already there. I'll be waiting."

"Okay." He turned to leave, and stopped. He turned back and said, "Try not to let your jaw drop when you see her, Humphrey. She's tried her hardest to look the best she can for you. And you'll be surprised when you see her."

"Can't wait."

Winston turned and left, heading back to the den to tell Lilly the news. Salty, Shakey, and Mooch followed behind me as I trotted towards the valley, ready for the wedding. I gulped down the nervous feeling in my throat as I came out of the tree-line to the valley. The crowd of wolves from the East and West packs separated, making a pathway for me, Shakey, Mooch, and Salty. I went up to the front, trying not to make eye-contact with anybody. When I got to the rock in front of everybody, I turned and sat down as the others sat in the front. I looked out to the crowd. So many familiar faces... Candy, Sweets, Reba, and Janice were all sitting at the front. Shakey sat next to Reba. I took note of that.

After a short moment of waiting, Winston appeared in the distance, jogging toward everyone. The crowd made a path for him to get to me, and decided to just leave the pathway open because Lilly would be here soon anyways. Winston came up to me and whispered, "She's on her way. You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," I answered back.

He walked past and sat behind me. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for Lilly's arrival. Winston said she tried her hardest to look as best as she could. She didn't have to do anything to herself and I thought she was beautiful. So if she was _trying _to look her best... I knew I was in for a surprise. I sat where I was, subtly taking deep breaths before letting them out.

Then I saw her come out of the tree-line that separated her parents' den and the valley. It seemed as if time slowed down when I saw her come in to view. Her fur was perfectly white. Shining as if the sunlight was bouncing off of her fur itself. It ran perfectly straight across her whole body. A blue flower nested behind her left ear. Her head fur being held back by the flower. I had to force my jaw to stay up. I gulped, even more nervous now. Winston wasn't joking. I really was surprised when I saw her. How could she look so beautiful? It had to be a crime to look so amazing! Time returned to its normal speed as Lilly sat down in front of me. "Lilly... You look... wow..."

She smiled. "Thanks. You look pretty 'wow' yourself, Humphrey." Lilly had so much more confidence than I did. Why was that? Oh... She'd already gone through a wedding once. Her and Garth. Forgot. She must have sensed how nervous I was. "Relax, Humphrey. Nothing to be nervous about."

I nodded and tried to relax. I did. A little. Not as much as I hoped, but at least I was more calm than before. We both turned our heads towards Winston. He spoke to everyone around. "Surprise wedding, right?" That's all it took to get a chuckle out of most of the pack. He continued, "Surprised me and Eve too. These two wolves here, my daughter, Lilly, and soon-to-be son-in-law, Humphrey, left the pack two weeks ago as friends and come home to tell me they're getting married. Who wouldn't be shocked at that, right? Well... They had no problem telling me and Eve about it. It was Eve and myself that had the problem—taking in the news. Mostly me, because Lilly and Kate have been my little girls since they were born."

Lilly had to have blushed at that.

"So, Lilly, when I learned that you and Humphrey wanted to get married, and Humphrey asked for my blessing, I almost didn't want to say yes, because it would mean letting you go on your own again." His voice went weak towards the end.

I thought Winston was going to cry. It looked like he was going to. "Ohh..." Lilly stepped toward her father and gave him a hug, patting him on the back for comfort as she said, "I'll still be your little girl, dad."

"Oh, you'd better," Winston joked as Lilly pulled herself away. Then both of us chuckled along with some of the pack wolves as she came back to sit in front of me. "And Humphrey. All I have to say to you is... Keep my daughter happy. You've made a good choice in marrying her."

I looked to Lilly, and we smiled to each other, but I was talking to Winston. "Don't worry, sir. I'll make her the happiest wolf in the pack."

"I don't doubt that," Lilly agreed.

Winston then told us. "You can begin the ceremony when you're ready."

"Actually... sir—"

"Ah ah," Winston interrupted. "Call me 'dad'."

"Dad," I corrected myself, trying it out for the first time. I'd have to get used to calling him that after calling him 'Winston' or 'sir' my whole life. I continued. "I'd like to say a few words to Lilly first, if that's okay."

He smiled. "Of course, go ahead."

"Thanks." Lilly wasn't expecting me to have anything to say. I hadn't either. I was going with what my heart was telling me. I looked Lilly in those beautiful violet eyes of hers and began. "Lilly... Neither of us expected to find love in each other when we were little. But... when we left Jasper two weeks ago, we did fall for each other. And it's made me so happy, being with you. And if I learned one thing while we were gone, it's this: You can find love in anybody. Even your best friends. And boy am I glad I learned that, because when I asked you to marry me, and you said yes, I became the happiest wolf in the world. It was the greatest feeling in the world. Which brings us here, in possibly the greatest, most amazing, moment of my life; Our wedding day. The day where you somehow managed to make yourself look more beautiful than usual. The day i'm going to remember for as long as I live. All I have left to say is... I _promise_ you, Lilly, that I will be the absolute _best_ husband I can be."

I finished and all of the girls in the crowd went, "Aw..." There may have been a couple of guys that did too, but I wasn't quite sure. If there were, then the girls had been a bit louder with it. I was surprised just how much I'd said, considering I hadn't planned any of it out. That was all from the heart. Lilly was smiling the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen. "That was...the most romantic thing I've ever heard, Humphrey."

"All for you," I said with a smile. We sat there, looking in each others' eyes for a moment. Then remembered where we were. Our wedding. "So... you wanna start or should I?"

"Let's start together."

"Together... Right."

We both started to circle each other, walking in a clock-wise direction. I was locked on her eyes, able to stop smiling. So was she. We continued our circle until we ended up where we began. Then we both leaned in towards each other at the same time. My head went to her left, and I sniffed, taking in her scent. I was already familiar with it, which made that part a bit pointless to us, but we still did it anyways to keep with the ceremonial tradition. We pulled our heads back, and switched sides. My head went to her right as I slightly opened my mouth, and took in the tip of her ear, nibbling on it as she nibbled on my left ear at the same time. I was careful to nibble gently so it didn't hurt her, so I was glad when I heard her adorable giggling. Guess it tickled her.

We pulled away to get ready for the next and final part of the ceremony. _This is it... _We both leaned our heads together, touching our noses against the other's. We were mates now. _I'm Lilly's mate... Her husband... _I'm going to keep the promise I had just made to her and try my very hardest to be the best husband I can be.

How long did Lilly and I have our noses rubbing together? No idea. It couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes because everyone would have stopped howling and barking by the time we pulled away. Lilly and I smiled to each other. Married. I still can't believe it. I was married! To Lilly! We turned towards the large pack of wolves in front of us. What were we going to do now? It was a surprise wedding for the pack, so I doubt the Alphas were able to get food for a party in the hour they had. So... Without a party, what were we going to do?

The most grueling thing that could be done at a wedding. Talk for hours about our new marriage. Sure, I didn't mind talking about being married to Lilly for a few minutes. But I knew the crowd wouldn't stop at minutes. No. They'd go for about an hour or two. Lilly and I walked into the crowd, and instantly got swarmed by just about everybody, yelling, "Congratulations!" "Congrats, you two!"

Lilly and I just kept walking, responding to anybody we could with, "Thanks!" and "Thank you!"

I didn't know how, but Lilly and I got separated from each other somehow. I hadn't realized it until I tried to look at her and she wasn't there. Oh well... I'd see her after all this. I'd just have to live without her for now. At least we'd have some time alone soon.

The two hours of talking with everyone passed quickly. And soon, it was just me, Lilly, and our closest friends: Reba, Janice, Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Candy, and Sweets. Of course we didn't mind talking with them for a bit longer. Sharing a few laughs was always a good time. And with all of us being Omegas, we laughed a lot. I tried hinting at Candy about Mooch's crush on her. But I don't think she understood. I wasn't sure if she did or not. But Mooch would still ask her out eventually. And when he did, Candy would most likely say yes. Even if it was just a pity-date, she'd probably grow to like him.

When our group conversation ended, and everybody was gone, Lilly and I started our way back to Eve and Winston's... Or... Mom and Dad's... den. There was no way I'd get used to that. At least not anytime soon. I felt a bit older, now that I was married. More mature. Wow... I'm married... How many times would I have to think that before I got used to it?

A cold breeze flew by us. Winter had just started. blowing through our fur. Lilly shivered. I leaned in closer, trying to share my body heat with her as we walked. Which was hard to do.

Now there were three promises to keep. The one to Kate; keeping Lilly safe. The one I made to Lilly today; be the best husband I can be. And the one to Winston: Keep Lilly happy.

I'm sure I can keep all three promises at once. After all... I've been able to keep her safe and happy for the past two weeks, right?

"I love you, Humphrey."

"I love you too, Lilly."


	9. Epilogue

**_The Promise 2  
><em>**_Epilogue | Humphrey_

I woke up from the pushing. My head was being nudged by someone. I groaned and lifted my head to see who was waking me. Whoever it was stopped. My first thought was that it was Lilly. So I opened my eyes so I could see her wonderful beauty... Then I saw Eve. "Oh! Geeze!" I immediately sat up, backing up a little out of fright. My breathing was fast now as I kept my eyes on Eve. My paw on my chest, hoping to keep my heart from jumping out of me as my pulse rate increased. She lifted a paw to her mouth, signaling me to be quiet. I looked down to my right side at Lilly, still asleep. Peacefully. I looked back to Eve, trying to catch my breath. Her fur looked messy, and I could see some dirt on her paws. I kept my voice low. "Are you _trying_ to give me a heart attack, Eve?"

"All I did was wake you up," she answered with a slight smile, obviously entertained with my fright.

"Yeah but you..." I stopped myself before I could say anything that could be remotely rude. No point in getting my tail ripped off by my new mother-in-law. I shook it off and said, "Never mind. Did you need something?"

"Just wanted to show you and Lilly something. We worked on it all night. Just wake her up and come to the river," Eve said, walking out of the den.

Show us something? Worked on it all night? Exactly what did she want to show us? I sat for a second, trying to figure it out. Then I turned to Lilly and reluctantly nudged her head. "Lilly... Lilly, wake up." I nudged her a bit harder, and her eyes slowly opened, fluttering for a second before she finally lifted her head up with a yawn. She looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, happy to see those beautiful lavender eyes of hers. She sat up, instantly stepping toward me and pressing her lips against mine as she sat down. Surprised me, of course, because I didn't expect her to do that the minute she woke up.

I put my paw on her back, pulling her closer to me so she could feel my heart beating against her chest. I could feel her heart as well, racing just as fast as mine. When she finally pulled away, I wished she hadn't. I acted as if it didn't bother me, but I was a bit dazed for a second. "Well... Good morning to you too," I said.

Lilly giggled. "Have a good sleep?"

"Yeah. It wasn't as good as what happened a couple seconds ago, but it was still good."

She smiled her amazing smile and the two of us sat in an awkwardly silence. Then my paw hit my head when I remembered something. "Oh! Right. Eve just came by. She wanted me to wake you up and head to the river."

"Really? Why?"

"Said she wanted to show us something. I don't know what though."

"Well," Lilly said, standing up from her sitting position. "We'd better not keep her waiting."

"Ladies first."

She walked in front of me, heading for the exit of the den. Her tail rubbing underneath my chin surprised me because it was the first time she'd ever done it. I didn't complain though. I just smiled and walked after her, catching up to her side when we got outside. My eyes automatically closed half-way from the morning sun, quickly trying to adjust to the change of brightness. I took a look around. There weren't as many wolves walking around as there usually was.

Where was everybody? Surely they wouldn't be inside on a day like this. Sure, the weather was pretty warm. But the cool breeze made it feel better. I looked to Lilly just so I could see her beauty again. The breeze flowing through her hair made sure it stayed away from her face. My mind flashed me back to the day before. Our wedding day. How beautiful Lilly had looked... And compared to now... She didn't look that different. I smiled. I couldn't help but remember the blue flower she had worn. Had it just been a coincidence or had she meant to wear it just to mess with me?

Before I could think too much about it, I realized we had reached the river. And we both froze at what we saw. "Whoa..."

In front of us was a den that neither of us had ever seen before, dug in the side of the mountain on the other side of the river, with about ten feet of land between the entrance and the edge of the river. Winston and Eve were sitting in the entrance with Hutch, Candy, Mooch, Janice and Salty standing behind them. I could tell how large this den was because everybody was inside, and there seemed to be room to spare. A little larger than Winston and Eve's den, by the looks of it. I looked at each individual wolf that was sitting in the den. Each of them had messy fur. And I couldn't really tell, because of the den's darkness, but they looked to have dirt in their fur as well.

Lilly took the first step toward the den before I did. The two of us walked inside, joining the others.

"You like your den?" Winston asked.

My attention snapped to my father-in-law when I heard his question. Lilly looked to him as well. "Y-you mean..."

Eve, sitting by Winston's side, nodded with a smile. "We all made this den for you and Humphrey," she said. "A place of your own."

Lilly and I sat, frozen as we kept looking around the den at how large it was. Rock walls, dirt floor, some flowers spread out here and there. It was amazing just to look at. And they did this for us? My gaze flowed across everybody's faces, looking at us.

"You... did this for us?" I asked.

"Yeah," Mooch said.

"We worked on it all night," Janice added.

"What do you think?" Candy asked.

Lilly and I spoke at the same time. "I love it." "It's amazing."

All the tails in the den started moving, smiles on each of the wolves' faces, glad that Lilly and I both approved of the den. But... why had they done this for us? We would've made a den ourselves eventually. I asked them, "Why'd you do this for us though? You didn't have to."

"We wanted to," Eve answered.

Hutch explained, "Mostly because we wanted to make up for not having a party after your wedding."

"The least we could do was make this for you," Salty said.

"Do you honestly like it?" Janice asked, wanting to be sure that we weren't lying for their sake.

"It's perfect," Lilly said, smiling. She went over to her mother, and hugged her, continuing on with everybody else. I almost stopped her from hugging Salty because I didn't want him trying anything, but figured I'd at least let him hug her for once. After each hug, she told them all the same two words. "Thank you."

"Thanks guys," I said, not bothering to hug anybody because it would feel awkward for me.

"You're welcome," everybody said at once.

I almost laughed when they all looked at each other after that, surprised they all said it at the same time. There was an awkward moment of silence between everyone as we all looked around at each other. "I... should probably go," Hutch said. "Got some duties to take care of."

"All right," I said as Hutch started his way out of the den. "See ya later."

He nodded as a goodbye before he exited our den, going to do... whatever his duties were. I didn't even know what he did every day, besides hunt. "We should probably go too," Winston said, getting to his paws.

Eve got to her paws as well. "You can't stay?" Lilly asked.

"Well, we need rest to rest up," Eve said. "We have to leave Jasper for a couple days to check on the nearby territories. Make sure everybody is still good on food."

"Oh. Yeah, you're gonna need some rest for the trip," I said.

Winston and Eve nodded. "Hope you like the den," Eve said, walking out of the den, following Winston.

Now it was just me, Lilly, Salty, Mooch, Candy, and Janice in the den. Everyone's fur was still so messy and dirty. "So... Now what?" Salty asked.

* * *

><p><em>One Month Later | Humphrey<em>

The last month hadn't been too exciting. Lilly and I went log-sledding from time to time and had fish from the river outside our den some times. Mooch still hadn't asked Candy to the Moonlight Howl, but said he was going to today. He had gotten a _lot_ more slim in the past month. He wasn't quite as small as me or Salty, though. Still a bit bigger than us. But he looked good. What surprised me about Candy, though, was the fact that she had wanted to try log-sledding for the first time. The look on her face was so good after her first run. It was an expression of both fear, and joy. Like it had scared her, but she still found it fun.

Shakey and Reba were getting along great. They looked great together. The two of them had been dating for about two weeks now. Going to the Moonlgiht Howls almost every night. Lilly and I had been going to the Moonlight Howls every night as well. And wow... her howl was so beautiful. She disagreed, saying it could be better. I don't think that could be possible though. Her howl was just that amazing. Better than I thought could be possible. It entranced me. I always howled with her, but I kept wanting to just stop so I could hear her perfect howl. Anytime I did though, she'd stop a few seconds after.

Lilly and I were both walking through Jasper together so we could enjoy the nice weather. Around noon, if I was judging the sun's position correctly. The weather had been getting colder from the Winter season, but it was warm today. The warmest day in the past week. I looked to my right at Lilly, walking beside me. The scars on the side of her face didn't bother me as much anymore. They weren't as noticeable now as they had been a month ago.

I got tackled from my left side. Lilly jumped forward, dodging my fall. I was ready for a fight against whoever tackled me, until I felt the weight. It wasn't as much as a wolf should be. I felt biting on my ear. Not hard biting like they wanted to hurt me. More like playing. I rolled onto my stomach, pulling my head away so I could see who it was. A small, black-furred wolf pup that I didn't recognize.

I gave him a playful growl, offering to play with him. Lilly just stood by and watched as he circled around, wanting me to play. I made a small jump at him, and he just tackled me again. I couldn't help but laugh. It was fun playing with a pup. He kept going for my ears, and I kept trying to avoid him. His playful growling told me that it was enough entertainment for him. And a challenge for me, trying to keep my ears away from him. I finally just froze, and let him get my ears before pulling them out from his teeth.

"Hey!" The pup stopped, raising his head at the voice. He acted like the voice was familiar to him. A female wolf that I didn't recognize ran up to us. I'd seen her before but didn't know her name. I looked to Lilly, wondering if she recognized them. She just shrugged. "Sorry about that," the wolf said as she approached us, panting. "He's a fast one, gets away pretty easily. He didn't bother you did he?"

"Oh, it's okay," I said. "We were just playing."

The pup ran over to her, running back to her tail that she started wagging for him to play with. I guessed she was his mother. Lilly came up to my side and sat with me.

"He looked like he was having fun," his mother said.

"He wasn't the only one," Lilly said, looking over at me.

"You sure have a way with kids, Humphrey," the wolf said to me. I just smiled. I was surprised for a second because she knew my name. But then again, I don't know anyone in the pack that didn't know me. I had gotten pretty popular ever since Kate and I were taken from Jasper. "I guess it's that Omega blood of yours that helps you connect with the kids, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Mommy, I'm hungry!"

She looked back at the pup. "Okay, okay." She looked back to us. "Gotta go. Bye."

"Bye," Lilly and I both responded.

With that, the pup and his mother took off to get some food. Even though she'd gotten a head start over him, the pup still passed her easily. She was right, that little guy was fast. Lilly and I continued our walk. "You sure had fun with that pup, didn't you?"

"What can I say? I'm an Omega, I gotta have fun."

Lilly smiled and we kept walking, enjoying the weather. We ended up back at the river after about an hour of walking. Jumping over the water, we started our way back home.

* * *

><p><em>That Night | Humphrey<em>

"You ready, Humphrey?"

I was sitting in mine and Lilly's den waiting for her to return. She had been out, getting ready for the Moonlight Howl. I already knew my answer to her question. I was ready. But I didn't answer her. I couldn't when I looked in her direction and froze at the sight. Lilly looked just as she had on our wedding day. Fur straightened out all neat and clean. But it was shining almost like silver in the moonlight, unlike our wedding day. A white flower in her hair kept it from falling in her eyes.

"Wow..." I sighed, admiring her beauty. Not once in the past month had she gotten so cleaned up and beautiful since our wedding day, even for the Moonlight Howls. So why was she tonight?

Lilly walked towards me, and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face even if I tried. I had kissed her enough times to know when one was coming. And I wasn't wrong about it this time. Lilly sat down in front of me as close as possible, her chest pressed against mine, and pushed her lips against mine. No matter how many time we kissed, my heart always started racing. I could tell that hers was too because I could feel it bouncing off of my own. I had learned not to be too disappointed when she pulled out of a kiss because I knew she'd give me another one at another time.

I still didn't like it when she broke away though.

"To answer your question... Yes, i'm ready to go," I said when she broke the kiss. "Can't wait to hear that howl of yours again..."

She smiled and started for the exit of the den. I followed after her, and we both jumped across the river at the same time. We'd have to make a bridge or something to get across. I didn't know if I'd be able to jump across when I got older. _I'll worry about that when the time comes._

The two of us got to the Howling Rock in almost no time. Our den had been built closer to it than Winston and Eve's den. As we walked up the slope, I looked around for any familiar faces. Mooch was here. With Candy. He'd actually asked her. And from the looks of it, she said yes. The two were howling together, waving their bodies back and forth in rhythm with their howls. They sounded great together. A look to my left showed me Shakey and Reba, howling together as well. Locked in each other's eyes. Their howls were good when mixed together. We continued up the mountain, nearing the top. I looked around for Salty.

He was howling with Janice. _Whoa. _He hadn't told me or Lilly that he was going to ask Janice out. I didn't bother to go talk to him. It'd just ruin the moment for him. Without me, Shakey, and Mooch, he would've been alone, so I wasn't sure if he had asked her as a date, or if it was just to avoid being alone.

Then Lilly and I finally made it close to the top of Howling Rock, in the spot that we usually came to. We sat in front of each other, our chests inches from touching. smiling. My heart already starting to race. "Ladies first," I said, wanting to hear her howl before I join in.

Lilly took a deep breath, lifted her head, and let out the most angelic howl I'd ever heard. Such a beautiful tone to it. Not too high-pitched, but not too low either. She started out at a semi-high-pitched tone, slowly letting it get lower as she end the howl. As she took in another breath for a second howl, I took my own breath in as well, and we both started the howl at the same moment. I heard some of the other howling couples below us stop. Probably looking up at us. I let Lilly's howl be a bit louder than mine so I could still hear her. At times, I'd raise my head higher, letting my howl overtake hers.

I loved every second of it. Scratch that. Every _milli_second. From start to finish. I had no idea how long we had howled, me being entranced by not only her beauty, but her wonderful-sounding howl as well. As our howls faded away, finishing together, I heard the other couples start howling again. As if they had only stopped to listen to me and Lilly. Did we really sound that great? Our heads came back down, and we smiled at each other.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" multiple wolves were chanting. I looked down to see who was chanting. More than half of the wolves here were in on it, all looking up at me and Lilly. We looked back to each other.

"I don't mind giving them what they want," I said.

Lilly leaned in toward me, bringing us into a kiss. My heart was already racing by now. I pulled Lilly towards me those last couple inches so she could feel my heart beating against hers. Her heart was beating just as quickly as mine was. I heard the wolves around us all cheering, happy to see what they'd asked for. Then I heard them go back to their howling. Lilly broke the kiss after a few moments, and looked me in the eyes. She put her head against my chest, probably wanting to hear my heart beating. "I love you, Humphrey."

"I love you too, Lilly."

"Humphrey... I've been thinking..."

"About what?"

"Well..." she said. "What would you say if... we woke up and heard little footsteps in our den?"

"I'd be a little scared because I wouldn't know who it was," I answered, more of a joke than a serious answer.

"Humphrey, i'm serious... I mean... I keep thinking of how cute you looked with that pup earlier. And that girl saying you had such a way with kids..."

I was starting to realize where Lilly was going with this. "Lilly... Are you saying you—you want to... have puppies?"

She gave me a nervous smile and nodded. My smile grew. "But... only if you want to," she said.

"Lilly, that's a great idea. I'd _love_ to have pups with you."

Lilly had me on my back before my heart could beat again. _How does she does that so fast? _She was licking my face, excited that I had agreed. When she finally let me get up, after I don't know how long, I got back to my paws, and stood in front of her. She was looking at me with lustful eyes. "What d'you say we head back to the den and start making them, then?"

The answer was shown in my smile. She turned and started her way down the slope, flicking her tail under my chin. I quickly followed, keeping her tail under my chin a second longer. We went down the hill a little faster than when we'd gone up. We tried not to walk too fast, to avoid any suspicion of what we were about to do. The trip back to our den, no matter how far away it was, was torture. _We're really going to do this..._ Lilly led the way, jumping over the river when we reached it and heading inside the den. I followed close behind. When I got in the den, Lilly immediately jumped on me, bringing me to the ground before I could blink, immediately pushing her lips against mine for a short moment before breaking away. I didn't complain about how short the kiss was.

* * *

><p><strong>Look for <em>The Promise III<em> to continue with the adventure!**


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